Intermediate / Lesson 14: -겠다
안녕하세요 여러분! Hey everyone! A long time ago I made a lesson on the form -겠다, but looking back on it, it’s not a great lesson (I’ve learned a lot about Korean since I started this blog!), so I decided to remake it! Even I’m not that familiar with all of the usages that I list, so any corrections are welcome :) I hope this is helpful!
1. -겠습니다: Expressing Intention
Let’s start with how to use -겠습니다. The first nuance this could have is expressing your intention to do something. It’s usually translated as “I will” in English, but has a stronger nuance than the plain future tense form, -ㄹ/을 거예요. These sentences tend to be more formal-sounding too. I’ve also heard that aside from set expressions like the ones below, this usage is not very common. Let’s see some examples:
잘 먹겠습니다. = I will eat well. / Thank you for the food.
You’ve probably heard this expression before – it’s said right before starting a meal when the food is served. This sentence expresses your intention/will to enjoy the food.
열심히 하겠습니다. = I will work hard.
You might say this when given a new project/task to do. This expresses your strong intention to work hard at it.
2. -겠어요: Guessing; Assumption
-겠어(요) is a way to use -겠다 less formally. It can express your guess or assumption about the way something is or might be. For example:
(from Tammy Korean – I really recommend this video!) 내일 날씨가 좋겠어요. = It looks like the weather is going to be nice tomorrow.
The actual sentence that Tammy Korean features is 내일 날씨가 좋겠네요. In my opinion, ending it with -네요 sounds more natural.
Here, you’re making a guess that the weather is going to be nice tomorrow. Maybe you watched the weather forecast and saw that it’s going to be warm and sunny.
민지 씨의 고양이는 죽었어요. 너무 속상하겠어요. = Minji’s cat died. She must be so upset.
Here, you’re making an assumption about how Minji feels based on what happened.
그 수학 수업은 어렵겠네요. = That math class must be difficult.
You’re guessing that this math class is hard. Maybe your friend tells you they’re taking a calculus class, which sounds very complicated.
-겠다 is similar to the above usage. I’m not sure if there’s much of a difference in nuance, but I think that -겠다 sounds even less formal/polite than -겠어요 (someone correct me if I’m wrong though!). Let’s see some examples:
맛있겠다! = It looks delicious!
This is another phrase you’ve probably heard before. It expresses your guess that the food will taste good based on the way it looks.
남자 친구가 생겼어요? 좋겠다! = You got a boyfriend? Lucky you!
좋겠다 here literally means something like “it must be nice,” or even in this particular sentence, “you must be happy.”
In my experience, I think I’ve heard this usage the most. It combines -겠다 with -아/어/여야 하다, which means “have to” or “should.” If I were to compare this with just the plain -아/어/여야 하다, I would say it is usually used when you’re talking to yourself, as if to tell yourself you should do something. Here are some examples:
오늘밤 일찍 자야 하겠다. = I should go to bed early tonight.
Often, this form omits the 하. This can be shortened to 오늘밤 일찍 자야겠다.
숙제를 지금 해야겠다. = I should do my homework now.
You might say this to tell yourself to do your homework.
That’s about it for this lesson! I hope it’s helpful and better than my original lesson lol. As usual, if anyone has any corrections or questions about this grammar point, please let me know! See you in the next lesson! 다음에 또 봐요!
Join my Discord chat here to practice Korean with others!
Follow me on Instagram here for more Korean content!
Get Drops Premium using my affiliate link to expand your Korean vocab!
Check out my Hilokal to join my live Korean classes for free!
Check out my Ko-Fi to support this blog and my studies! Thank you for your generosity!
