Korean Future Tense | ~(으)ㄹ 거예요
In this lesson, you will learn how to make the Korean future tense. Once you learn how to make Korean future tense sentences, you will be able to talk about future plans and things that will happen in the future. In previous lessons, we looked at how to conjugate verbs into the present tense and the past tense. If you remember how to conjugate verbs, changing verbs into the future tense in Korean is really easy.
Korean Future Tense
To change a verb into the future tense in Korean, you just need to add the correct future tense ending. The basic future tense ending is ~(으)ㄹ 거예요. By adding this ending to a verb it changes the verb into the future tense and so the verb takes on the meaning of ‘will’ do something, or ‘going to’ do something. Let’s take a look at how to add this future tense ending to verbs.
Conjugation Rule 1
If a verb stem ends in a vowel, add -ㄹ 거예요
To change a verb that ends in a vowel into the Korean future tense, you simply add -ㄹ 거예요 to the verb stem. In the table below you can see some Korean verbs that end in a vowel and follow this rule. We have also included the present and past tense forms to review what you learned in previous lessons.
| Verb (Infinitive) | Present Tense | Past Tense | Future Tense |
|---|---|---|---|
| 가다 (to go) | 가요 | 갔어요 | 갈 거예요 |
| 보다 (to see) | 봐요 | 봤어요 | 볼 거예요 |
| 만나다 (to meet) | 만나요 | 만났어요 | 만날 거예요 |
Conjugation Rule 2
If a verb stem ends in a consonant, add -을 거예요
To change a verb that ends in a consonant into the Korean future tense, you simply add -을 거예요 to the verb stem. Let’s look at some examples.
| Verb (Infinitive) | Present Tense | Past Tense | Future Tense |
|---|---|---|---|
| 먹다 (to eat) | 먹어요 | 먹었어요 | 먹을 거예요 |
| 읽다 (to see) | 읽어요 | 읽었어요 | 읽을 거예요 |
| 입다 (to wear) | 입어요 | 입었어요 | 입을 거예요 |
Conjugation Rule 3
If a verb stem ends in ㄹ, just add -거예요
When a verb already ends in ㄹ, to make the future tense you simply add 거예요 to the verb stem. Let’s look at some examples.
| Verb (Infinitive) | Present Tense | Past Tense | Future Tense |
|---|---|---|---|
| 살다 (to live) | 살아요 | 살았어요 | 살 거예요 |
| 놀다 (to play) | 놀아요 | 놀았어요 | 놀 거예요 |
| 팔다 (to sell) | 팔아요 | 팔았어요 | 팔 거예요 |
Korean Future Tense- Example Sentences
Now that you know how to take a verb and change it into the future tense, let’s look at some useful Korean future tense sentences.
| English | Korean | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| What are you going to do? | 뭐 할 거예요? | |
| I am going to exercise. | 운동할 거예요. | |
| When will you go? | 언제 갈 거예요? | |
| I will go tomorrow. | 내일 갈 거예요. | |
| Who will you watch the movie with? | 누구랑 영화를 볼 거예요? | |
| I will watch the movie with Sumin. | 수민이랑 영화를 볼 거예요. | |
| What will you eat? | 뭐 먹을 거예요? | |
| (I / We) will eat meat. | 고기 먹을 거예요. |