ㄹ라 그러다

be about to, be trying to

This is the relaxed spoken form of -(으)려고 하다, "intend to, be about to". "-(으)ㄹ라" carries the intention and 그러다 supplies the "trying": you're trying to take off, aren't you; it's supposed to be funny; I was only trying to help; I was going to ask. It shows up in speech and in captions imitating speech, never in writing, and it often carries a slight note of protest — I was only about to do X, so don't take it wrong.

Register: casual spoken