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I have kind of an awkward situation. I asked my Korean friend to correct my sentence. And she did, but she used a word that I can't understand. I looked it up in Naver, but there is no such word. Could you help me out?

My original sentence was:

금방 잠자더라도 잠 잘 못 할 거예요.

I was corrected:

바로 잠을 청하려해도 잠에 들지 못할거예요.

So I saw this 청하려하다 word. Naver only has the following:

잠을 청하게 하다

And it means "to induce sleep."

Could you tell me the meaning of her original word?

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청하다 usually means 'to ask', e.g for a favor.

However, 잠을 청하다, to 'ask for the favour of sleep', has the idiomatic meaning of 'to try to sleep'.

So 바로 잠을 청하려해도 잠에 들지 못할거예요 means 'if I try to sleep right now, I won't be able to fall asleep'.

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  • But.. why did she used 청하려하다. what is -려하다 grammar part means? Is it a contraction of 청하려고 하다? – LexRomah Feb 24 '17 at 9:54
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    @LexRomah Yes, it's the same meaning as 려고 하다 - to intend to do something. As you can see here, the '고' is optional. 잠을 청하려 하다 seems almost tautological - it's a bit like "to try to try to sleep" or "to intend to try to sleep". – topo Reinstate Monica Feb 24 '17 at 11:28

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