-(으)ㄹ 것 같다

RuleVerb/adjective stem + -(eu)l geot gatda: marks conjecture, "seems / will probably." After a consonant use -eul geot gatda; after a vowel use -l geot gatda.

Curiosity

How do you express an uncertain but likely guess in Korean, as in "it looks like it will rain"?

Intuition

-(eu)l geot gatda takes the future/presumptive adnominal -(eu)l and adds "geot (thing) gatda (seems like)" to softly guess "it looks like that will happen." It is less assertive and more hedged than -get-.

Visualization

gada (dictionary) → ga (stem, vowel) → gal geot gatda. With no final consonant it takes -l geot gatda.

가다gadadictionary form

Essence

With a vowel use -l geot gatda (gal geot gatda); with a consonant -eul geot gatda (meogeul geot gatda). The adnominal shifts by tense: present -neun geot gatda (ganeun geot gatda), past -(eu)n geot gatda (gan geot gatda), future/conjecture -(eu)l geot gatda. Adjectives use -(eu)n geot gatda even for the present (yeppeun geot gatda).

Examples

비가 올 것 같아요.

It looks like it will rain.

이 음식은 매울 것 같아요.

This food seems like it will be spicy.

그 사람은 지금 바쁜 것 같아요.

That person seems busy right now.

Mini-quiz

"It ___ ." (conjecture "looks like it will rain") Which fits? (oda, vowel stem)