What does “보고 싶다” mean in Korean?

The Korean for “I miss you” isn’t its own verb — it’s 보고 싶다, literally “I want to see (you).” It stacks 보다 (“to see”) with the want-ending -고 싶다 (“want to”). So the same grammar that builds 먹고 싶다 (“I want to eat”) quietly carries one of the language’s most emotional lines: missing someone is wanting to lay eyes on them again.

-고 싶다 attaches to an action-verb stem to express your own desire: 가고 싶다 (want to go), 자고 싶다 (want to sleep). With 보다, that everyday “want to” deepens into longing — which is why a tearful reunion ends on 보고 싶어, 만나고 싶어 (“I miss you, I want to meet you”), the casual forms doubling the ache. Korean does have a more poetic word for missing, 그립다, but it’s literary and song-like; in real speech people reach for 보고 싶다. Seeing the want-pattern underneath it shows that “I miss you” in Korean is built, not memorised.