-(으)려고 (Intention)

The (으)려고 structure expresses intention, purpose, or a planned action—but it works very differently from English. In English, we say "I want to go" or "I'm going to go," which feel like desires or future statements. Korean treats intention as a separate grammatical category that modifies the main action.

Here's the key insight: (으)려고 means "with the intention/purpose of doing X." It's an adverbial modifier—it doesn't stand alone. Instead, it sets up WHY or WHAT YOU'RE ABOUT TO DO before the main verb. English speakers expect intention to be the main point ("I want to..."), but Korean puts it in a supporting role that leads to another action. This mirrors Korean thinking: the intention is the reason; the actual action is what matters.

For example, "회사에 가려고 준비했어요" is literally "with the intention of going to the company, I prepared"—the intention explains the preparation. English would say "I prepared to go to the company" or "I prepared because I'm going," but these feel awkward. The Korean structure is more direct about causality: intention → resulting action.

The form changes based on the verb stem's final consonant: stems ending in consonants use -으려고, while vowel-stems use -려고. When you want to say "I intend to..." without a following action, you can use (으)려고 하다 (literally "do with the intention of"), which makes intention the main verb itself.