TOPIK II · LEVEL 6
-(으)ㄹ라
A casual sentence ending used to warn someone close that something bad might happen if they are not careful.
추측·판단Guessing & judgingHan: -(으)ㄹ라 is a sentence-final warning and cannot give the reason for an action in a linked clause; for that use -(으)ㄹ까 봐.
Examples
옷 따뜻하게 입고 가. 감기 들라.Dress warmly before you go, or you'll catch a cold.
빨리 나가자, 기차 놓칠라.Let's go out quickly, we might miss the train.
길이 미끄러워. 넘어질라, 조심해.The road is slippery. Careful, you might fall.
천천히 먹어, 체할라.Eat slowly, or you'll get an upset stomach.
Don’t mix up
-(으)ㄹ라vs-(으)ㄹ까 봐-(으)ㄹ까 봐 connects a worry to an action and works in any politeness level; -(으)ㄹ라 only ends a casual warning: 늦을까 봐 택시를 탔어요.-(으)ㄹ라vs-(으)ㄹ세라-(으)ㄹ세라 is a literary connective ("lest") describing someone acting in a hurry, not a spoken warning to the listener: 누가 볼세라 얼른 편지를 숨겼다.-(으)ㄹ라vs-겠다-겠다 is a neutral guess about what will happen; -(으)ㄹ라 adds worry and a warning to be careful: 비가 오겠다 vs 우산 써, 비 맞을라.
How to build it
V/A+(으)ㄹ라
늦다 → 늦을라, 넘어지다 → 넘어질라, 감기 들다 → 감기 들라
- Casual speech only: use it with friends, children or younger people. Adding -요 does not make a standard polite form, so with superiors say -(으)ㄹ까 봐 걱정돼요 instead.
- It expresses worry about an unwanted result, so the verb is usually something bad (넘어지다, 늦다, 감기 들다), not a hoped-for event.
- It ends the sentence and cannot link two clauses; it is usually said next to advice such as 조심해 or 천천히 먹어.
Classic mistake
Wrong: 늦을라 택시를 탔어요.
Right: 늦을까 봐 택시를 탔어요.
-(으)ㄹ라 is a sentence-final warning and cannot give the reason for an action in a linked clause; for that use -(으)ㄹ까 봐.
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All TOPIK grammar- -(으)ㄹ 리 만무하다A formal, emphatic way to say "there is absolutely no way that ~", based on the speaker's firm reasoning.
- -(으)ㄹ 소지가 있다Something has a flaw or condition in it that could lead to an undesirable result, such as a misunderstanding, dispute or abuse.
- -(으)ㄴ/는 감이 있다Used to say, softly, that something strikes you as a bit too much or not quite enough: 'it feels somewhat ~'.
- -(으)ㄹ세라-(으)ㄹ세라 means someone quickly or carefully does something out of anxiety that an unwanted event might happen ("for fear that", "lest").
- -(으)리라고-(으)리라 + quotative 고 before a verb of thinking or expecting: '(think/believe/expect) that … will …'. Literary; very common in -(으)리라고는 생각하지 못했다 'never imagined that …'.
- -지 싶다-지 싶다 expresses the speaker's own fairly confident guess, like 'I suppose / I'd say it's probably ~'.
- -(으)리라는 + NA literary noun modifier giving the content of an expectation, belief or resolve: 'the expectation/belief that … will …'. It is -(으)리라 + -는 (from -고 하는) and is typical of news, essays and narratives.
- -(으)매-(으)매 is a bookish, literary way to say 'because' or 'as', linking a cause to its natural result in formal writing.
- -(으)나 -(으)나Two paired or opposite verbs/adjectives, each with -(으)나, mean 'whichever of these is the case, the following stays the same', which often amounts to 'regardless' or 'all the time'.