[Grammar] ~을/ㄹ까 봐

~을/ㄹ까 봐 (~eul/eul-gga bwa) – I’m afraid (this would happen)

You would almost always hear this in Korean conversations, be it in daily life, text messages or dramas.

Usually, ~을/ㄹ까 봐 will be followed by some other action or statement.

For example, “I’m afraid this would happen so I did this”.

But sometimes, you will realise that the sentence just ends with ~을/ㄹ까 봐.

Either the speaker is not sure what he or she should do or the sentence itself might just be a filler.

Examples:

지금 하늘이 너무 어두워서 나중에 비가 올까 봐 우리 우산을 가져 나가자.
The sky is so dark now and I’m afraid it might rain later so let’s get out with an umbrella.

떡볶이는 애들에게 너무 매울까 봐 고추장을 적게 넣을게.
I’m afraid the spicy rice cakes might be too spicy for the rest so I’ll put less red pepper paste.

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