Korean speech levels 101 | Formal, Polite and Intimate

If you’ve watched one episode of a K-drama before, you must have heard of the following: XXX-yo or XXX-seumnida. These are both Korean sentence-final endings.

Seniority is a big part of the Korean society. You can even tell just by their speech. They need to choose appropriate words or speech styles when they are talking or referring to another person. The main determiner of which speech style to use is the relationship between the speaker and the listener. However, the occasion, seniority and age can also be a factor on determining which speech style to use. In this article, three Korean speech styles will be introduced, including the formal speech style, polite speech style and intimate/plain speech style.

First, let’s take a look at the formal speech style. As the name suggested, formal speech style is used in formal situations. It is the highest level of the three speech styles, which means it’s the most polite. It’s suitable for use in formal occasions, such as in the workplace, speeches, conferences, meetings, news reports or government announcements.

Example: 안녕하십니까 반갑습니다 = Hello, it’s my honor to meet you

The second speech style is the polite speech level, which is the 요-ending that we are the most familiar with. It is not as formal as the previous speech style, but it is still polite. Therefore, it’s the most used speech style in daily conversations. It can be used with classmates, colleagues, neighbours or strangers that you’ve encountered on the street, basically anyone. In short, if you are not familiar enough with the other person in which you can use intimate speech with, and you are not in a formal occasion, you can choose to use this polite speech style.

Example: 안녕하세요 반가워요 = Hello, nice to meet you

Moving onto the last speech style, which is the intimate/plain speech style. In most cases, the sentences are exactly the same as the polite speech, just without the 요 at the very end. This speech style is used with people who are close and familiar, such as family, friends, partners or juniors. Generally, we will use the polite speech style to people we just met, but after a while, when the relationship is established, we can use this intimate speech style under mutual agreement. Although we might think that we can use this intimate speech style to people who are younger than us the first time we met, but it’s actually impolite. It is best to use the polite speech style when we encounter someone, and then use the intimate speech style when the relationship is built.

Example: 안녕 반가워 = Hi, nice to meet you

Next time when you wonder which speech style to use, you can play it safe and use the polite speech style if you are not in a formal setting. If you are close with someone, you can ask them if it’s okay to use the intimate speech style with them.