When you are so sure something is false that you refuse to even entertain it — "there's no way he'd lie," "it can't possibly have finished already" — Korean hands you a single, purpose-built construction: -(으)ㄹ 리가 없다. It sits at the far, near-certain end of the guessing spectrum, and its force comes from the little bound noun buried inside it: 리, meaning "reason, grounds, logic." Literally you are saying there is no reason/logic for that to be the case — so it is not a soft "probably not." It is a confident dismissal grounded in your own reasoning.
The shape
The construction stacks three pieces after a verb or adjective stem:
- -(으)ㄹ — the prospective modifier (the same one behind -(으)ㄹ 거예요 and -(으)ㄹ까요?),
- 리 — the bound noun "reason / grounds,"
- 가 없다 — "there is no ~."
| Stem ends in… | Ending | Example |
|---|---|---|
| a vowel | -ㄹ 리가 없다 | 가다 → 갈 리가 없다 |
| ㄹ (already) | -ㄹ 리가 없다 | 알다 → 알 리가 없다 |
| any other consonant | -을 리가 없다 | 먹다 → 먹을 리가 없다 |
For a past situation — the most common use, since you are usually denying that something already happened — put the past inside the modifier: -았/었을 리가 없다.
그 사람이 거짓말할 리가 없어요.
geu sarami geojinmalhal riga eopseoyo
There's no way he'd lie.
벌써 끝났을 리가 없어요.
beolsseo kkeunnasseul riga eopseoyo
It can't possibly have finished already.
진수가 그걸 몰랐을 리가 없어.
Jinsuga geugeol mollasseul riga eopseo
No way Jinsu didn't know that. (banmal)
Notice the tense placement in the second and third examples: 끝나다 → 끝났을, 모르다 → 몰랐을. The denial is about the past event, so the past marker lives on the main verb, not on 없다.
Why 리 makes this a denial of logic, not of likelihood
This is the insight that makes the form click. 리 is the grounds on which a belief could rest. So -(으)ㄹ 리가 없다 negates the grounds themselves — "there is no basis on which that could be true." That is a claim about reasoning, and it is therefore more subjective and more forceful than a statement about mere odds.
Compare it with a hedge like -지 않을 것 같다 ("I don't think it'll…"), which reports your estimate of the odds and leaves the door open. -(으)ㄹ 리가 없다 slams that door: you are not weighing probabilities, you are asserting that the very idea is unreasonable. English "there's no way" catches the tone exactly — it is emphatic, a little indignant, and often said in defense of someone or something.
그 사람이 약속을 잊어버릴 리가 없어요.
geu sarami yaksogeul ijeobeoril riga eopseoyo
There's no way he'd forget the appointment (he never does).
이 시간에 가게 문을 열었을 리가 없어요.
i sigane gage muneul yeoreosseul riga eopseoyo
There's no way the shop would be open at this hour.
Dropping the 가
In speech the 가 is very often dropped, leaving bare -(으)ㄹ 리 없다. The meaning is identical; the shorter version just sounds a touch more clipped and idiomatic.
그럴 리 없어요.
geureol ri eopseoyo
That can't be right. / No way.
설마 그게 사실일 리가 없어요.
seolma geuge sasiril riga eopseoyo
Surely there's no way that's true.
The adverb 설마 ("surely (not)…") pairs beautifully with this construction — it primes the listener for a denial before the denial even arrives.
The critical contrast: -(으)ㄹ 리가 없다 vs. -(으)ㄹ 수 없다
Here is the error to burn out early. Both end in 없다, both attach to -(으)ㄹ, and English "can't" glosses both — so learners swap them. They mean completely different things.
- -(으)ㄹ 수 없다 denies ability or possibility: the door is physically or circumstantially shut. 수 is the bound noun for "way, means, capacity."
- -(으)ㄹ 리가 없다 denies likelihood through reasoning: you make a confident inference that it isn't so.
| Form | Denies… | 갈… | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| -(으)ㄹ 수 없다 | ability / possibility | 갈 수 없어요 | "(I) can't go" — something blocks it |
| -(으)ㄹ 리가 없다 | likelihood (by reasoning) | 갈 리가 없어요 | "there's no way he'd go" — I'm sure he won't |
오늘은 바빠서 갈 수 없어요.
oneureun bappaseo gal su eopseoyo
I can't go today because I'm busy. (ability blocked)
그 사람이 이런 날씨에 등산을 갈 리가 없어요.
geu sarami ireon nalssie deungsaneul gal riga eopseoyo
There's no way he'd go hiking in weather like this. (a confident guess)
The test: if you could paraphrase with "is unable to / it's impossible to," you want 수 없다. If you could paraphrase with "I'm certain he/it wouldn't," you want 리가 없다. For the possibility side, see inability with 못 and -(으)ㄹ 수 없다.
The rhetorical positive: 리가 있다?
The affirmative -(으)ㄹ 리가 있다 is rare as a plain statement, but it thrives as a rhetorical question meaning "as if that could be the case!" — a denial dressed as a question.
그럴 리가 있어요? 절대 아니에요.
geureol riga isseoyo? jeoldae anieyo
As if that could be true! Absolutely not.
And the fossilized exclamation 그럴 리가! — just the setup with everything after it swallowed — is an everyday cry of disbelief.
벌써 다 팔렸다고? 그럴 리가!
beolsseo da pallyeotdago? geureol riga!
Already sold out? No way! / You've got to be kidding!
Register and where it sits
-(으)ㄹ 리가 없다 is register-neutral: 없어요 (polite), 없어 (banmal), and 없습니다 (formal) all work, so you can use it from a chat with friends to a written report (그럴 리가 없습니다). What it always brings is conviction. On the certainty scale it lands next to a flat "it isn't so" — stronger than 아닐 거예요 ("it's probably not") and far stronger than the hedged 아닌 것 같아요 ("I don't think it is").
확인해 봤는데 계산이 틀렸을 리가 없습니다.
hwaginhae bwanneunde gyesani teulleosseul riga eopseumnida
I checked, and there's no way the calculation is wrong. (formal)
Common Mistakes
1. Using 리가 없다 for "can't (ability)." This is the number-one transfer error. English "can't" covers both, but Korean does not.
❌ 다리를 다쳐서 걸을 리가 없어요.
Wrong — you mean your leg is injured so you're UNABLE to walk (ability), not that it's unreasonable to think you'd walk.
✅ 다리를 다쳐서 걸을 수 없어요.
darireul dacheoseo georeul su eopseoyo
I hurt my leg, so I can't walk.
2. Putting the tense on 없다 instead of inside the modifier. The past goes on the main verb: 했을 리가 없다, not ×할 리가 없었다 for "there's no way it happened."
❌ 그 사람이 그런 말을 할 리가 없었어요.
Odd for 'there's no way he said that' — the past belongs inside: 했을 리가 없어요.
✅ 그 사람이 그런 말을 했을 리가 없어요.
geu sarami geureon mareul haesseul riga eopseoyo
There's no way he said something like that.
3. Forgetting the modifier after a consonant stem. It is -을 리가 없다 (먹을 리가 없다), never ×먹 리가 없다.
❌ 진수가 그 음식을 먹 리가 없어요.
Wrong — a consonant stem needs the -을 modifier.
✅ 진수가 그 음식을 먹을 리가 없어요.
Jinsuga geu eumsigeul meogeul riga eopseoyo
There's no way Jinsu would eat that food.
4. Over-hedging it into softness. -(으)ㄹ 리가 없다 is not a polite "maybe not." If you actually mean "I'm not sure, but probably not," use 아닐 것 같아요; save 리가 없다 for genuine, confident denial.
Key Takeaways
- -(으)ㄹ 리가 없다 = "there's no way / it can't possibly be that…," built on 리 "reason, grounds."
- Because it denies the grounds, it is a confident, subjective denial — stronger than a hedged "probably not."
- Past denials put the tense inside the modifier: -았/었을 리가 없다.
- Don't confuse it with -(으)ㄹ 수 없다 ("can't," ability/possibility blocked). 리 = likelihood by reasoning; 수 = ability.
- The 가 is often dropped (리 없다); 그럴 리가! is a stock cry of disbelief.
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Start learning Korean→Related Topics
- Degrees of Certainty: A Map of Korean ConjectureTOPIK 4 — A hub page ranking Korean's guessing endings from tentative to near-certain — and, more importantly, sorting them by evidential source, because Korean grammaticalises both how sure you are and where the guess came from.
- -(으)ㄹ 수 있다 / 없다: Can / CannotTOPIK 2 — Korean's all-purpose 'can / cannot' — a bound noun 수 ('way, means') plus 있다/없다 — covering both learned ability and situational possibility, and how it differs from the confident inference 리가 없다.
- -(으)ㄴ/-는/-(으)ㄹ 것 같다: Seems / ProbablyTOPIK 3 — Korean's default device for guessing and softening — a clause is nominalized with 것 and compared to reality by 같다, with the tense carried on the modifier ending, not on 같다.
- -나 보다 / -(으)ㄴ가 보다: I Guess, Judging From…TOPIK 4 — The 보다 conjecture family — an evidential 'I gather / it seems, judging from what I observe' — with -나 보다 for verbs and -(으)ㄴ가 보다 for adjectives, and the crucial rule that you can't use it about your own feelings.