-기(를) 바라다: I Hope That (Formal, Directed)

-기(를) 바라다 is the wish you bestow. Where -고 싶다 reports the desire boiling inside you and -았/었으면 좋겠다 breathes out a personal, often wistful hope, -기(를) 바라다 turns the hope outward and points it at another party: a blessing, a well-wish, a formal appeal. It is the language of graduation speeches, New Year's cards, ceremony toasts, official notices, and the closing line of a formal letter. Learn it as the register-top of the wish family — dignified, directed, and slightly ceremonial by nature.

The shape

You nominalize the verb or adjective with -기 (the "-ing / the act of" nominalizer), optionally mark it as the object with 를, and follow it with 바라다 — almost always in its formal shape 바랍니다 or its written-neutral 바란다.

The 를 is freely dropped, especially in fixed public phrases (많은 참여 바랍니다, 양해 바랍니다 "we ask for your understanding"). In speech and casual writing, -기를 also contracts to -길: 잘 되길 바라요.

The reframing: a hope aimed AT someone

This is the distinction English blurs. In English, "I hope…" covers everything from "I hope I win" to "I hope you feel better." Korean splits that field: for your own desire to do something you use -고 싶다; for a private wish about how things turn out you use -았/었으면 좋겠다; and for a hope directed at another party — their success, their health, their safe arrival — you use -기를 바라다. It carries the outward, benedictory tone of "may you…," which is precisely why it sounds ceremonial when misapplied to a casual first-person want.

Because the hope is aimed at the addressee, -기를 바라다 readily takes the subject honorific -(으)시- on the wished-for verb — 건강하시기, 도착하시기, 받으시기 — elevating the very person you are wishing well. Leaving off -시- toward an elder or an audience makes an otherwise gracious sentence sound oddly flat.

The 바라 / 바래 trap

Here is the point every learner (and half of Korea) gets wrong. 바라다 is a regular ㅏ-stem: 바라 + -아요 collapses two identical 아 sounds into one, so the standard 해요체 form is 바라요 and the standard imperative/bare form is 바라 — not 바래요, not 바래.

Yet in real life the overwhelming majority of speakers say and write 바래 / 바래요, on analogy with vowel-changing verbs. It is so widespread that it feels natural — but it is officially nonstandard, corrected in editing, and wrong on the TOPIK. The same trap hits the derived noun: the standard word for "a wish, a hope" is 바람 (from 바라 + -ㅁ), which people constantly misspell 바램 — a spelling reinforced by the well-known ballad title but still incorrect.

Where it sits among the wishes

The gradient runs from inward and casual (-고 싶다) to outward and formal (-기를 바라다). For the understated middle, see -(으)면 하다; for the warm personal wish, -았/었으면 좋겠다.

Common Mistakes

1. Using 바라다 for an everyday personal want. It reads like a graduation address, not a person ordering coffee.

2. Writing 바래(요) in careful Korean. Standard is 바라(요) / 바랍니다, however common 바래 may be in speech.

3. Dropping the honorific -시- when the wish is aimed at someone you respect. Toward an elder or an audience, elevate the wished-for verb.

4. Misspelling the noun 바람 as 바램. The wish-noun is 바람 (바라 + -ㅁ), never 바램.

Key Takeaways

• -기(를) 바라다 is the formal, ceremonial wish — a hope directed at an addressee: blessings, well-wishes, and official appeals.
• Form: verb/adjective + -기(를)
  • 바라다, almost always 바랍니다; 를 drops freely and -기를 contracts to -길.
• It takes the honorific -시- on the wished-for verb (건강하시기 바랍니다), elevating the person you are wishing well.
• The standard forms are 바라 / 바라요 / 바랍니다 and the noun 바람 — the ubiquitous 바래(요) and 바램 are nonstandard.
• For everyday first-person wants use -고 싶다; -기를 바라다 for a casual craving sounds like a certificate.