You probably would have been very happy in Korean 🇰🇷

Sentence info.

아마 (ama) – “probably.”
정말 (jeong-mal) – “really.”

행복했을 거예요 (haeng-bok-haet-seul geo-ye-yo) breaks down as follows:
• 행복하다 (haeng-bok-ha-da) means “to be happy.”
• 행복했- is the past informal form “was happy” (formed by replacing 하다 with 했).
• -을 is a modifier ending that connects to the following noun.
• 거예요 is a contraction of “것이에요” (geo-si-ye-yo), literally “thing is,” which in this context expresses a prediction or supposition (i.e. “would have been” or “was probably”).

Together, the sentence literally reads as “Probably really was happy,” and it conveys “You probably would have been very happy.”

Tip: Remember that in Korean, adverbs like 아마 and 정말 come before the verb phrase, while the supposition or prediction is expressed by attaching -을 거예요 to the past form of the adjective. It’s useful to identify the root 행복하다 (“to be happy”), convert it into the past form 행복했-, and then add -을 거예요 for guessing or assuming what happened.

Alternate ways to say “You probably would have been very happy”:
• 아마 정말 행복했겠죠. (ama jeong-mal haeng-bok-haet-get-jyo) – here, -겠죠 adds a nuance of “I suppose” or “would have been,” making it functionally equivalent.
• 아마 정말 행복했을 거라고 생각해요. (ama jeong-mal haeng-bok-haet-seul geo-ra-go saeng-gak-hae-yo) – which adds “I think” at the end for an extra layer of personal estimation.

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