Learn Korean (TTMIK)

Lesson 4

There are times when you want to invite others to do something with you and ask “shall we do
this together?” and there are also times when you are making assumptions and ask yourself or
others “I wonder what the weather will be like tomorrow” or “what will he say to that?”
In Korean, you can use the same sentence ending for both of these purposes and more!
-(으)ㄹ까요? [-(eu)l-kka-yo?]

Usage #1
- Asking oneself a question or showing doubt about something
Examples:
“I wonder what is in this bag?”
“Will he be alright?”
“Will it be hot tomorrow?”
“What will she say?”
etc.

Usage #2
- Raising a question and attracting attention of others
Examples:
“Why did this happen? What do you think, everyone?”
“What do you think life is?”
etc.

Usage #3
- Suggesting doing something together

Examples:
“What shall we do now?”
“Shall we go to the movies?”
“Do you want me to help you?”
etc.
How do you know which of these meanings it takes?
- It’s fairly clear and easy to see which meaning it takes when you look at the context.

Construction
1. Verb stems ending with a consonant + -을까요?
- 먹다 (to eat) becomes 먹을까요?
2. Verb stems ending with a vowel + -ㄹ까요?
- 보다 (to see) becomes 볼까요?
3. (Exception) Verb stems ending with ㄹ + -까요?
- 팔다 (to sell) becomes 팔까요?

Construction for the past tense
You can add the past tense suffix -았/었/였 right after the verb stem and before -(으)ㄹ까요 to
make an assumption about a past event. Since this is in the past tense, it can ONLY be used for
expressing doubt or curiosity.
Ex) 어제 Taliana가 한국에 왔을까요?
[eo-je Taliana-ga han-gu-ge wa-sseul-kka-yo?]
= Do you think Taliana came to Korea yesterday?

More examples
1. 내일 비가 올까요?
[nae-il bi-ga ol-kka-yo?]
= Do you think it will rain tomorrow?
= I wonder if it will rain tomorrow.
= Will it rain tomorrow? What do you think?
(It CANNOT mean “shall we...” because “shall we ... rain tomorrow?” does not make sense.)

2. 내일 우리 영화 볼까요?
[nae-il u-ri yeong-hwa bol-kka-yo?]
= Shall we see a movie tomorrow?
= Do you want to see a movie together tomorrow?
(It CANNOT mean “I wonder if...” because “do you assume that we will see a movie tomorrow?”
generally doesn’t make sense.)

3. 이 사람은 누구일까요?
[i sa-ram-eun nu-gu-il-kka-yo?]
= Who do you think this person is?
= Who is this person, I wonder?
= I wonder who this person is.

4. 커피 마실까요? 맥주 마실까요?
[keo-pi ma-sil-kka-yo? maek-ju ma-sil-kka-yo?]
= Shall we drink coffee? Shall we drink beer?
= Do you want to drink coffee or beer?