-겠-
will, I guess, I’d say
An infix like -았/었-, but for what has not happened yet. It carries the speaker’s own resolve, or a guess about someone else’s situation.
Build it
Pick a verb
When to use it
The form is the easy part: 겠 attaches straight to any stem, with no vowel rule and no ㄹ dropping. 가겠어요, 먹겠어요, 알겠어요.
The meaning splits by person. With I it announces a decision, formally: 제가 하겠습니다. It is what you say volunteering in a meeting, not what you say offering a friend a coffee. With anyone or anything else it becomes a guess drawn from evidence in front of you: 맛있겠어요 (that looks delicious), 힘들겠어요 (that must be hard).
It also lives inside fixed phrases that no longer feel like future tense at all: 알겠습니다 (understood), 모르겠어요 (I don’t know), 잘 먹겠습니다 (said before eating). Learn these as whole units.
How to attach it
| Situation | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Any stem | -겠- — no change | 가다 → 가겠어요 |
| ㄹ stems keep the ㄹ | -겠- | 알다 → 알겠어요 |
| Formal announcement | -겠습니다 | 제가 하겠습니다 |
| Guess about others | -겠어요 | 맛있겠어요 |
| Guess about the past | -았/었겠- | 힘들었겠어요 |
| Fixed phrases | learn whole | 알겠습니다, 모르겠어요, 잘 먹겠습니다 |
In use
제가 먼저 발표하겠습니다.
I’ll present first.
네, 알겠습니다.
Yes, understood.
그 음식 정말 맛있겠어요.
That food looks really delicious.
혼자 하셨어요? 힘들었겠어요.
You did it alone? That must have been hard.
내일은 비가 오겠습니다.
It will rain tomorrow. (weather forecast)
잘 모르겠어요.
I’m not sure.
Compared with
-(으)ㄹ 거예요
Both point forward, but -겠- is formal and declarative while -(으)ㄹ 거예요 is the ordinary way to state a plan. For “I’m going to the market tomorrow,” use the second.
제가 가겠습니다. (I volunteer) / 내일 갈 거예요. (that’s my plan)
-(으)ㄹ게요
-(으)ㄹ게요 is a promise made to the listener, warm and conversational. -겠- announces to a room. Both mean “I will,” and picking the wrong one is a register error rather than a grammar one.
제가 하겠습니다. (in a meeting) / 제가 할게요. (to a friend)
-(으)ㄹ 것 같다
For a guess, -겠- is immediate and reactive — you are looking at the thing. -(으)ㄹ 것 같다 is a considered opinion and works without anything in front of you.
맛있겠어요. (seeing the dish) / 맛있을 것 같아요. (I imagine it’s good)
Watch out
네, 알습니다.
네, 알겠습니다.
The set response to an instruction always carries 겠. 압니다 exists but means “I know it as a fact,” which is not what the situation calls for.
내일 친구를 만나겠어요.
내일 친구를 만날 거예요.
-겠- makes an ordinary plan sound like a formal declaration. For everyday arrangements, use -(으)ㄹ 거예요.
저 커피 마시겠어요. — to a friend
저 커피 마실게요.
Among friends, -(으)ㄹ게요 is the natural way to state what you are about to do. -겠- belongs to formal settings.
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