A1
ㄹ/을 거예요 — will, going to
How Korean expresses the future with ㄹ/을 거예요, how it differs from 겠다, and why it doubles as a guess.
ㄹ 거예요 after a vowel, 을 거예요 after a consonant.
내일 갈 거예요.
Naeil gal geoyeyo.
I’ll go tomorrow.
집에서 먹을 거예요.
Jibeseo meogeul geoyeyo.
I’m going to eat at home.
The ㄹ attaches to the stem itself: 가 + ㄹ = 갈. Korean writes it inside the syllable block rather than after it, which takes some getting used to.
Also a guess
The same form covers a prediction about someone else, where English switches to probably.
친구가 좋아할 거예요.
Chinguga joahal geoyeyo.
My friend will probably like it.
Which reading is meant depends on the subject. About yourself it is a plan; about anyone else it is a guess, because Korean does not let you assert another person’s intentions — the same instinct behind Japanese たがる.
Against 겠다
겠어요 is the other future. It is more immediate and more common in fixed expressions than in ordinary sentences.
맛있겠어요!
Masitgesseoyo!
That looks delicious!
처음 뵙겠습니다.
Cheoeum boepgetseumnida.
Pleased to meet you.
Neither is about the future in any useful sense. 겠 is best met as part of these phrases first and analysed later.
The present often does the job
For a scheduled event Korean uses the plain present, as English does with the train leaves at six.
기차가 여섯 시에 떠날 거예요.
기차가 여섯 시에 떠나요.
Grammatical, but it turns a timetable into a prediction. A fixed schedule takes the present.