This is the 13918th most frequent Korean word.
말았으면
"Had better not" or "if (something) hadn't."
Here, '말았으면' is used to express hope or regret that something undesirable would not have occurred: '끝나지 말았으면' refers to the hope or hypothetical situation of not ending in a certain way.
더 노력했었더라면 이런 결과로 끝나지 말았으면 좋았을 텐데.
If we had tried harder, it would have been better if it hadn't ended with such results.
In this sentence, '말았으면' conveys a hypothetical condition about avoiding an event: '사고가 나지 말았으면' indicates the wish or conditional situation where the accident did not happen.
사고가 나지 말았으면 당신에게 더 많은 이야기를 전할 수 있었을 텐데.
If the accident hadn't happened, I could have shared more stories with you.
Here, '말았으면' represents a hoped-for or wished state where the rain didn't occur: '비가 오지 말았으면' expresses the desire for the rain to not happen.