바라다 vs 원하다

“want, hope, or wish”: 바라다 or 원하다?

Source-verified September 7, 2026. AI-assisted and checked against NIKL dictionary sources.

The quick answer

바라다 for a hoped-for outcome; 원하다 for a desired thing or action.

바라다

A hoped-for outcome, or wanting to possess something.

부모님은 자식들의 행복을 바라는 마음뿐이었다.

The parents wanted nothing more than their children's happiness.

원하다

Hoping for something or wanting to do it.

나는 말다툼을 벌인 친구와 화해를 원했다.

I wanted to reconcile with the friend I had argued with.

One useful caveat

The senses overlap, so this is a cue rather than a hard rule.

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Sources and method

Separate grounding and adversarial checks must pass before a guide is published. These guides are not human-reviewed.

Source examples are adapted from the National Institute of Korean Language's Korean-English Learners' Dictionary under its Attribution-ShareAlike terms.

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