Today, we’re going to study the grammar pattern that evolved from “-을 것이다”. I’ve previously explained the future tense pre-ending ‘-겠-‘ and the pre-noun forming ending ‘-을’. If you missed those, checking them out first will help you understand today’s lesson even better.
Let’s look at the basic pattnern: -을 것이다.
- In 요-form: -을 거예요.
- In formal form: -을 것입니다. (or shortened to -을 겁니다)
Example:
- 오늘 비가 올 거예요. – I will rain today.
- 내일 오실 겁니까? – Are you coming tomorrow?
If you want to sound even more polite, you can use ‘-겠-‘ right after the verb stem. However, remember that ‘-겠-‘ is a formal pre-ending, so it usually pairs with the formal ending.
- 오늘 비가 오겠습니다. – I will rain today. (Formal announcement style)
- 내일 오시겠습니까? – Would you come tomorrow?
At this point, “-겠습니까?” has evolved beyond just being a future tense. It’s now a fixed pattern used specifically for making polite requests.
Now, let’s talk about ‘-을게’. This pattern came from ‘-을 것이다’, but over time, it became a separate block with its own unique meaning.
The most important rule? ‘-을게’ is only used for the 1st person subject. It expresses the speaker’s strong will or promise.
- 금방 갈게요! – I will be there ASAP!
We usually omit the subject “I” here because the ending itself already implies it.
But what if you want to say, “Let me do it”?
- 제가 할게요! – Let me do it.
Even though the ending already means “I”, we often include the subject ‘제가’ here to emphasize that you’re kindly volunteering or offering a favor to someone else.
In daily life, you might hear this pronounced differently. In Korean, there is a tendency for the first sound of a syllable following the batchim ‘ㄹ’ to become a tensed sound.
So, while we write “할게요”, we actually pronounce it as [할께요]. Some locals even write it phonetically as “할께요” in text messages! If you go even further into slang, you might hear “하께요”. It’s not grammatically correct, but knowing this will definitely help your listening skills!
I hope this helps you choose the right ‘future’ for your next conversations.
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