-(으)리오
(eu)rio
Grammar · 1 sense
how could, who would
Examples
내 어찌 고향을 잊으리오.
How could I forget my home?
그 누가 당신을 싫어하리오.
Who would hate you?
우리가 어찌 포기하였으리오.
How could we have given up?
When you'd hear it
This is literary and old-fashioned, appearing in poetry, formal writing, historical dramas, and solemn speeches rather than everyday conversation. It commonly appears in rhetorical questions with 어찌 or 누구/그 누가.
What learners get wrong
Unlike the ordinary future or intention marker -(으)ㄹ 거예요, -(으)리오 often asks a rhetorical question that rejects a possibility: “How could that happen?” Its formal, literary tone is also much stronger than -(으)ㄹ까요.
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