🇰🇷 Lesson 9: Purpose, Intention & Decisions

Every January, and then again at 설날 (the Lunar New Year), Korea fills up with plans. Gyms sell year-long memberships, bookshops put TOPIK prep books at the front, and everyone asks each other: 새해 목표가 뭐예요? ("What's your New Year's goal?"). To answer well, you need to say what you want to achieve, why you're doing something, so that something else can happen, and how firmly you've decided — "I'm thinking of…", "I've decided to…", "I was just about to!"

At A2 you learned -(으)러 ("in order to go and…") and -(으)려고 하다 ("intend to"). This lesson builds the rest of the toolkit, and it spends real time on a set of endings that all translate as "so that" or "in order to" in English but are not interchangeable in Korean: -기 위해서, -도록, -게.

🧠 The Mental Model: Aims and Certainty

This lesson has two halves.

For the purpose half, the key question is: whose goal is it, and is it an action or a result? If the subject is deliberately aiming at their own action, it's -기 위해서 territory. If you're doing something to bring about a state or to let someone else do something, it's -도록/-게 territory. Keep that question in your pocket.

🎯 -기 위해(서): "In Order To"

위하다 means "to serve, to be for the sake of". -기 위해서 turns a verb into a goal: "for the purpose of doing". 서 is optional: -기 위해 sounds a little more written.

Review: -기 위해서 vs -(으)려고 vs -(으)러

You already know two other "in order to" endings. Here is how they divide the work:

The command restriction on -(으)려고 is worth remembering: ✗ 살을 빼려고 운동하세요 → ✓ 살을 빼기 위해서 운동하세요 / 살을 빼고 싶으면 운동하세요.

🎈 -도록: "So That" (and "Until")

-도록 attaches straight to the stem: 보이도록, 자도록, 늦지 않도록, 이해할 수 있도록. Its core meaning is "to the point where X is the case". From that come three uses.

Use 1: "So that" — aiming at a result

Here -도록 describes the state or outcome you want to bring about. That outcome can involve a different person, or be a state rather than a deliberate action — exactly the cases where -기 위해서 fails or sounds stiff.

Notice how often -도록 comes with -지 않도록 ("so as not to") and -(으)ㄹ 수 있도록 ("so that … can"). These two combinations cover a huge share of real use. (You will also see -지 않기 위해서; it isn't wrong, but for preventing something, -지 않도록 is the more natural choice.)

Use 2: "Until / to the point that" — degree and time

This is the -도록 you met at the end of Lesson 8: like -(으)ㄹ 때까지, it marks a limit, but it adds a sense of "to that extent". 밤새도록 is so common it's practically a single word.

Use 3: -도록 하다 — polite instructions and resolutions

In the second person, -도록 하세요 is a softened, slightly formal instruction ("be sure to…"), much loved by doctors, teachers and bosses. In the first person, -도록 하겠습니다 is a promise or resolution.

🎨 -게: "So That" (Conversational)

You know -게 as the ending that turns adjectives into adverbs: 예쁘다 → 예쁘게, 빠르다 → 빠르게. Stretch that idea a little and -게 can describe the result you want: "(do it) in a way that makes X happen" = "so that X". In this use it overlaps with -도록, but it is lighter and more conversational.

Mostly -게 and -도록 can swap in the "so that" use: 잘 보이게 / 잘 보이도록. The difference is register — -게 for chatting, -도록 for instructions, notices and writing. The "until / to the point that" meaning (Use 2 above) belongs mainly to -도록; -게 does it only in a few fixed expressions like 배 터지게 먹었어요 ("I ate till I nearly burst"). (Don't confuse this with -게 하다, "to make someone do", which is a causative — Lesson 16.)

🗂️ Which One? -기 위해서 vs -도록 vs -게

🎩 -고자: Formal Purpose and Intention

-고자 is the formal, written relative of -(으)려고. You'll hear it in speeches, news, presentations and official emails, never in chat with friends. As a connector it means "in order to"; as -고자 하다 it means "intend to" (= formal -(으)려고 하다). Same subject throughout.

📏 How Sure Am I? The Intention Scale

Now the second half. Korean has a neat scale from "toying with the idea" to "it's settled".

-(으)ㄹ까 하다: "I'm thinking of…"

Literally "I say to myself, 'shall I…?'". It's tentative and first-person: you use it for your own half-formed plans, often with 나 ("or something") to soften further. Past -(으)ㄹ까 했어요 usually implies the plan didn't happen.

-기로 하다: "Decide / Agree To"

-기로 하다 marks a decision, either your own or one made with someone else (an arrangement). It's almost always in the past (-기로 했어요), because the deciding already happened. Stronger verbs can replace 하다: -기로 결심하다 ("resolve to"), -기로 결정하다 ("decide officially"), -기로 약속하다 ("promise to").

Negatives: 안 가기로 했어요 or 가지 않기로 했어요 ("decided not to go"). The last example shows the propositive: -기로 해요 = "let's make it a rule to…".

-(으)려던 참이다: "I Was Just About To"

참 means "the very moment". -(으)려던 참이다 says you were right on the point of doing something — typically when someone suggests or asks about exactly that thing. Form: 가려던, 먹으려던, 만들려던 (ㄹ-stems take no 으). The past -(으)려던 참이었어요 is the most common form; the present -(으)려던 참이에요 is also used when the moment is still now. Adding 마침 ("just then") or 막 ("just") is very natural.

💬 Dialogue: New Year's Goals

Ha-eun and Ryan are language-exchange partners meeting for the first time in the new year.

Look at who the goals belong to. 합격하기 위해서 and 건강해지기 위해서 are each speaker's own aims. 늦잠 자지 않도록 and 포기하지 않게 are about the other person — so they need -도록/-게.

📅 Cultural note — 작심삼일 and two New Years. 작심삼일 (作心三日, "a resolve that lasts three days") is the idiom every Korean reaches for when a resolution collapses; you'll meet more four-character idioms like it in Lesson 24. The good news: Korea celebrates both the solar New Year (1월 1일) and 설날, the Lunar New Year, a few weeks later. People joke that if their January resolutions fail, 설날 is the official second chance.

📰 Reading: 새해 목표, 끝까지 지키는 법

A short advice column from a lifestyle magazine, written in friendly 해요체.

✏️ Practice

🧠 Check Your Understanding

❓ Common Questions

A goal about your own Korean is worth making specific too. "Get fluent" is a -(으)ㄹ까 하다 sort of goal; "read one short article a day for a month" is a -기로 했어요 goal. Plateaus at B1 usually come from vague goals, not a lack of talent — so set a small one, and keep it.

🔮 Looking Ahead

In Lesson 10: Turning Verbs into Nouns you'll look closely at the -기 that has been hiding inside -기 위해서 and -기로 하다, and meet its siblings -(으)ㅁ and -는 것. You'll also learn -기 쉽다/어렵다, -는 데 걸리다 and -는 편이다 — perfect for talking about your habits and lifestyle.