하오체 and 하게체: the old speech levels

Both sit between 합쇼체 and 한다체. 하오체 gives the listener a moderate amount of respect, and 하게체 speaks down to them while still treating them as an adult.

This is the voice of two noblemen meeting in a historical drama, or of a husband and wife in a novel set a century ago. One ending does the work of statement and question, and only the context and the voice separate them. It sounds dignified and slightly stiff, and today it can also sound like a person putting on an old-fashioned manner.

The command with 시오 is the one part that's still in daily use, in writing addressed to the public. It's on doors, on lawns and in exam papers. Nobody means it as old-fashioned there. It's simply the short, impersonal way for a sign to speak.

구려 is 구나 at the 하오체 level. The speaker has just noticed something and remarks on it, often with some feeling. You'll mostly meet it between older couples, in novels and period dramas.

On a bare action verb, 구려 gently tells the other person to do something. So 왔구려 notices that you've come, and 가구려 tells you to go. To notice something happening now, a verb takes 는구려, as in 가는구려.

하게체 is how an older person speaks to a younger adult they don't want to talk down to like a child. The classic case is a father-in-law to his son-in-law, and you'll also hear it from an older professor to a grown former student, or between men who've been friends for a lifetime. The speaker is usually middle-aged or older.

The giveaway is 자네, the "you" that goes with this level. If you see 자네, you can read everything around it as 하게체. You can still hear this level in real life, from older people.

Two of these have look-alikes, so check before you decide. 네 is also the noticing ending from 네요, as in 비가 오네. If 자네 is around, or the speaker is telling you their own plan, as in 오늘은 내가 사겠네, it's 하게체.

는가 has a second life in writing, where it isn't speech level at all. Headlines and essays use it to raise a question with nobody in particular: 기술은 우리의 삶을 어떻게 바꾸었는가? The title of 이상화's poem 빼앗긴 들에도 봄은 오는가 is a question of the same kind.

그려 isn't an ending. It's a small particle that hangs on the end of a finished sentence, mostly in 하오체 and 하게체, and it leans on what was just said, a bit like "you know" or "then". If you see an ordinary ending with 그려 after it, take 그려 off and read the sentence as usual.

Here are two old friends meeting in a historical drama. They're equals who respect each other, so they stay in 하오체 on both sides.

Now a father-in-law and his son-in-law. Notice that the levels don't match. The older man uses 하게체 going down, and the younger man answers in polite modern Korean going up, and that gap is the relationship.

The usual way to get these wrong is to borrow a line from a drama. Speech levels go in one direction, so a line that's fine from a grandfather is an insult from you.