-(으)ㄹ꼬
(eu)l kko
Grammar · 2 senses
Asking opinion
Examples
영희야, 너는 무슨 노래를 부를꼬?
Young-hee, what song are you going to sing?
우리 언제 떠날꼬?
When are we leaving?
방이 왜 이리 좁을꼬?
Why is this room so small?
When you'd hear it
This ending sounds literary, old-fashioned, or dialectal in modern Korean. Learners are most likely to encounter it in historical dramas, traditional storytelling, stylized writing, or deliberately archaic speech rather than ordinary conversation.
What learners get wrong
It is close in function to the modern ending -(으)ㄹ까?, but it is not the normal everyday choice. Use -(으)ㄹ까? for a natural modern question about what to do or what someone thinks.
I wonder
Examples
이제 나는 무엇을 하여 먹고살꼬?
What am I going to do to make a living now?
집도 없이 나는 어디로 갈꼬?
With no home, where am I supposed to go?
그이는 어디로 갔을꼬?
I wonder where he went?
When you'd hear it
This is an old-fashioned, literary sentence ending, common in historical dramas, traditional-style writing, and rhetorical self-questioning. It is rarely used in ordinary modern conversation, where speakers usually use -(으)ㄹ까 instead.
What learners get wrong
Do not treat it as a normal everyday equivalent of -(으)ㄹ까. -(으)ㄹ꼬 often gives a dramatic, archaic, or literary tone to wondering aloud, especially in monologues or narration.
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