해요체, 합쇼체, 반말 and 한다체: speech levels

Older grammars list seven, and you'll still meet the extras in historical dramas, poetry and the occasional old-fashioned sign. Everyday Korean has collapsed to three: 반말 with people you're close to, 해요체 as the polite default, and 합쇼체 for formal and public speech. A fourth, 한다체, is mostly for writing.

해요체 and 합쇼체 together are called 존댓말, respectful speech, and 반말 is the casual side. The word to keep in mind is distance rather than manners. 반말 says we're close, and it's only a problem if the other person hasn't agreed.

Pick a sentence and move along the dial. The stem stays put and only the tail moves.

해요체 is the 해요 form from lesson 6, and everything you've built so far is in it. It's correct with strangers, colleagues, shopkeepers, teachers and anyone whose relationship to you isn't settled yet.

It's almost never rude. You can speak nothing else for years without causing offence, which can't be said of 반말. If you keep one thing from this lesson, keep the 요.

합쇼체 ends in ㅂ니다 or 습니다. Grammars rank it as the highest level, so learners overuse it as the safest option. In practice it's about formality more than respect, and with a friend it comes across as cold.

It belongs in announcements, presentations, the news, the military and customer service. Shop staff often use it on you, and the subway uses it over its speakers. In conversation it puts distance between you and the listener on purpose.

Look at the question row. In 해요체 your voice alone turns a statement into a question. 합쇼체 has an ending for it, 까.

반말 is for close friends, family, children and younger people you know well. To make it, take the 해요 form and drop 요. Nouns take 이야 or 야, the forms from lesson 2.

아 and 야 are what you put on a given name to call someone, the way you'd call across a room. They belong with 반말, so they're for friends and people younger than you. Anyone you'd speak 해요체 to gets 씨 or a title instead.

반말 isn't rude in itself. It's intimate, which is why it lands badly on the wrong person: you've announced a closeness they never agreed to. The same words that are warm with a friend are presumptuous with someone you met an hour ago.

The switch is a social moment with its own name, 말을 놓다, literally "to put down your speech". The older person usually offers, or the younger one invites it with 말 놓으세요, please speak casually with me.

As a learner you'll mostly be on the receiving end of that offer, which keeps things easy. Use 해요체 until someone tells you otherwise. Waiting costs you nothing.

Meeting a Korean often means being asked your age within minutes. English speakers file that next to salary and weight, but here it's closer to grammar. Every sentence either of you says next needs a level, and relative age helps decide it.

Among friends, someone even a year older often becomes 형 or 누나 to a man and 오빠 or 언니 to a woman, rather than a name. That relationship then sets who may offer 반말 to whom. Without the answer, the other person is guessing at grammar.

It's also why Koreans often ask for your birth year instead of a number. Traditional counting makes everyone one year old at birth, so the same person can give two different ages. A 2023 law made international age the legal standard. The guide to Korean numbers covers how to say the answer.

Speech level is about the person you're talking to. Honorifics raise the person you're talking about, who may not even be in the room. Mixing the two up is the most common confusion on this topic, so keep them apart from the start.

The main honorific is 시, which sits inside the verb. Lesson 28 teaches it, so for now only look at what the two dials do. In the first three sentences below the teacher is treated with respect each time, and only the ending moves.

A few everyday words swap for a different word entirely. You'll probably meet 성함 first, because staff at a counter often ask for it when they want your name.

Day to day, this matters more than verb endings. Koreans rarely use a bare given name for anyone who isn't a close peer or younger.

People are addressed by role instead, with 님 on the end: 선생님 for a teacher, 손님 for a customer, a job title plus 님 for a manager. You'll also see 님 after names in emails, on forms and online, but a beginner can keep it for titles.

씨 is milder and goes on a name, for a peer or someone you don't know well. It's polite without being deferential, so it suits a colleague at your level and not your boss. Use it on the full name or the given name. On the surname alone it sounds brusque.

The word for I follows the level too. 저 is humble and goes with 해요체 and 합쇼체, and 나 is plain and goes with 반말. From a learner, 나 with a polite ending usually sounds like phrases picked up from different places.

한다체 is the plain style of written Korean: newspapers, books, essays and diaries. In writing it has no particular listener in mind, so it's neither polite nor rude. You need it for reading now, and in Level 3 it becomes the base of quoted statements.

Name the level of each sentence from its ending.

Now pick the ending for the situation.

Less happens than you'd fear. Koreans give obvious learners plenty of room on this, and being too polite only makes you sound a little formal, which nobody minds. The one to avoid is 반말 with someone older or someone you've just met.

Dramas and variety shows are the trap. They're full of 반말 because they're about people who are close, so phrases you pick up there arrive without the relationship that allowed them. A line that's charming between two leads is a different thing said to a stranger.

My advice is dull and correct. Speak 해요체, recognise 합쇼체 when it's used on you, understand 반말 well enough to follow friends talking, and wait to be invited before using it yourself.