How to Say See You Tomorrow in Korean Informal: 8 Casual Phrases and Exactly Who You Can Use Them With

You want to know how to say see you tomorrow in Korean informal, which usually means you're leaving a friend, a classmate, or a coworker your own age and "내일 봐요" feels too stiff. The trap is that "informal" in Korean isn't one setting — there's the plain casual 반말 you use with close friends, and the softened 해요체 you use with a coworker you're friendly with but still can't drop honorifics on.

Pick the wrong one and it's not a small error. Saying 내일 봐 (naeil bwa) to your team lead reads as if a new intern slapped them on the back.

So here's the split: phrases you can say to anyone your age or younger, phrases that need an established close relationship, and one line that's safe when you genuinely can't tell where you stand.

SituationSaying "see you tomorrow" to someone you're not formal with
How much politeness mattersMedium-high — the ending changes with age gap and how close you actually are, not with how friendly the conversation felt
Safe default내일 봐요 (naeil bwayo) — casual but still polite, safe with almost anyone who isn't your boss

If You Only Remember One

내일 봐요 (naeil bwayo) — "see you tomorrow."

This is the one to use if you're unsure. It's relaxed, not stiff, and it works with coworkers, classmates, your friend's older sibling, the person at the gym.

Drop the 요 — 내일 봐 (naeil bwa) — only with close friends and people clearly younger than you.

With a boss or anyone notably senior, use 내일 뵙겠습니다 (naeil boepgetseumnida) instead.

The Expressions, and Who Each One Is For

Jump to a phrase

1. 내일 봐요

naeil bwayo (literally: see tomorrow + polite ending)

The workhorse. It's the 해요체 level — polite but not formal — which in practice means casual without being rude. This is what you say to a coworker at a similar rank, a classmate, a friend of a friend, your language exchange partner.

It carries no distance and no risk. Most learners who think they need 반말 actually need this.

⚠️ Watch out — The only place it lands wrong is with someone clearly senior in a workplace — your manager, a client, a professor. There it's not offensive, just slightly under-dressed. Use 내일 뵙겠습니다 there.

2. 내일 또 봐요

naeil tto bwayo (literally: see you again tomorrow)

Same politeness as 내일 봐요, with 또 (tto, "again") added. It makes the goodbye warmer — it implies you've enjoyed this and you're glad it's repeating.

Use it with the same people: coworkers you like, classmates, regulars at your hobby group. Very common when you actually see this person daily.

⚠️ Watch out — Nothing to avoid, but don't use it for a one-off meeting where you have no idea if you'll see them again — 또 presumes continuity and it sounds odd when there isn't any.

3. 내일 뵈요

naeil boeyo (봬요 is the standard spelling; 뵈요 is the common typed form)

뵈다/뵙다 is the humble verb for "to see (someone senior)" — you lower yourself rather than elevating them. Adding 요 keeps it casual in register while still deferential in vocabulary.

Use this for someone older than you that you're on relaxed terms with: a senior coworker you get lunch with, your 선배, a friend's parent you know well. Note that Koreans argue about the spelling constantly — 봬요 is correct, 뵈요 is what most people actually type.

⚠️ Watch out — Don't use it with a friend your own age. The humble verb makes it sound like you're being sarcastic or suddenly creating distance.

4. 그럼 내일 봐요

geureom naeil bwayo (literally: well then, see you tomorrow)

그럼 is the "well then" that signals the conversation is closing. Korean goodbyes usually get this kind of runway rather than starting cold.

Same audience as 내일 봐요 — coworkers, classmates, anyone in the casual-polite band. Adding 그럼 makes you sound like you're actually speaking Korean rather than translating a phrase.

⚠️ Watch out — No trap. If anything this is the most natural-sounding version on the list, because native speakers rarely fire off a bare 내일 봐요 with no lead-in.

5. 내일 봐

naeil bwa (the 반말 form — no polite ending)

This is 반말: the plain speech level, no honorific ending. It's what people mean when they say "informal Korean."

Say it to close friends, people you've explicitly agreed to speak 반말 with, and people clearly younger than you where the relationship is casual. Between two people who are actually close, anything more polite would sound cold.

⚠️ Watch out — This is the one that gets learners in trouble. Do not use it with a coworker just because they're friendly, with someone older than you, or with anyone you met this week. In Korea dropping to 반말 is usually negotiated out loud — someone says 말 놓자 (mal notja, "let's drop the formality") first.

6. 내일 또 보자

naeil tto boja (literally: let's see each other again tomorrow)

-자 is the plain-form "let's." So this isn't a statement, it's a proposal — it has a bit more warmth and initiative than 내일 봐.

Close friends, people your age you drink with, teammates you're genuinely casual with. It's the version that sounds like you're looking forward to it.

⚠️ Watch out — Same 반말 restriction as 내일 봐, plus one extra: because -자 is a suggestion, using it upward sounds like you're issuing an instruction to someone senior. Worse than just being too casual.

7. 낼 봐

nael bwa (낼 is the contracted spoken form of 내일)

낼 is 내일 squeezed down in speech. It's not slang and it's not wrong — it's just how the word comes out when people are relaxed, especially in texts.

Use it with close friends only, and mostly in writing: KakaoTalk messages, a quick wave as you leave. It's the most offhand item on this list.

⚠️ Watch out — Don't write 낼 in anything work-related, even to a friendly colleague on a company messenger. It reads the way "tmrw" reads in an email.

8. 내일 학교에서 봐 / 내일 회사에서 봐요

naeil hakgyoeseo bwa / naeil hoesaeseo bwayo (see you at school / at the office tomorrow)

Adding -에서 (-eseo, "at") with the place is extremely common and often more natural than a bare "see you tomorrow," because it says where.

The politeness lives entirely in the ending, so this works at both levels: 봐 for close friends, 봐요 for coworkers and classmates. Swap in any place — 카페에서 (kapeeseo, at the cafe), 거기서 (geogiseo, there).

⚠️ Watch out — The trap is the ending, not the place. Attaching a friendly detail doesn't make 봐 acceptable to someone senior — 회사에서 봐 to your manager is still 반말.

coworkers saying goodbye at office entrance in seoul evening ## How It Sounds in Real Life

Two university classmates, same year, close friends — leaving the library

A: 나 먼저 갈게. 낼 봐 (na meonjeo galge. nael bwa) — I'm heading off first. See you tomorrow.

B: 어, 내일 또 보자 (eo, naeil tto boja) — Yeah, see you tomorrow.

Two coworkers, similar rank, friendly but not close — end of the workday

A: 그럼 저 먼저 들어가 볼게요 (geureom jeo meonjeo deureoga bolgeyo) — I'll head out first, then.

B: 네, 내일 봐요 (ne, naeil bwayo) — Sure, see you tomorrow.

A: 내일 또 봐요 (naeil tto bwayo) — See you tomorrow.

You and a 선배 five years older, relaxed relationship — leaving a study group

A: 선배, 저 이만 가볼게요 (seonbae, jeo iman gabolgeyo) — I'm going to head off now.

B: 응, 조심히 가 (eung, josimhi ga) — Yeah, get home safe.

A: 내일 봬요 (naeil boeyo) — See you tomorrow.

You and your team lead — leaving the office

A: 먼저 들어가 보겠습니다 (meonjeo deureoga bogetseumnida) — I'll be heading out.

B: 네, 수고했어요 (ne, sugohaesseoyo) — Alright, good work today.

A: 내일 뵙겠습니다 (naeil boepgetseumnida) — See you tomorrow.

Texting a close friend on KakaoTalk

A: 낼 몇 시에 만나? (nael myeot sie manna?) — What time are we meeting tomorrow?

B: 두 시. 낼 봐 (du si. nael bwa) — Two o'clock. See you tomorrow.

Which One Do I Pick?

  • If you can't place the person or you've known them under a month, use 내일 봐요. Casual-polite is never the embarrassing choice.
  • Use 내일 봐 or 내일 또 보자 only after 반말 has been established — either the other person used it with you first, or someone said 말 놓자. Same age alone isn't enough.
  • If the person is older than you but you're on easy terms, 내일 봬요 — the humble verb handles the age gap while 요 keeps it relaxed.
  • In a workplace, sort by rank before age. A same-age colleague two levels above you gets 내일 봐요 at minimum, often 내일 뵙겠습니다.
  • Add the place — 내일 회사에서 봐요 — when you're leaving a shared routine. It sounds more like real speech than the bare phrase.
  • In text messages to close friends, 낼 봐 is normal. Keep it out of anything a manager might read.

Mistakes That Give You Away

  • Don't translate "see you" as 봐요 to your boss. Bare 내일 봐요 upward is under-dressed — use 내일 뵙겠습니다 (naeil boepgetseumnida).
  • Don't copy 반말 from dramas. Characters using 내일 봐 have years of backstory; you saying it to a coworker in week two reads as presumptuous, not friendly.
  • Don't say 안녕히 가세요 (annyeonghi gaseyo) to a close friend as your goodbye — it's correct but formal, and to a friend it sounds like you're pushing them away. Use 잘 가 (jal ga) or 내일 봐.
  • Don't add 요 to 반말 forms hoping to soften them. 보자요 isn't a word. The polite version of 내일 또 보자 is 내일 또 봐요.
  • Don't assume 안녕 (annyeong) covers it. 안녕 is a bare casual "bye" with no "tomorrow" in it, and it's 반말 — same restrictions as 내일 봐.
  • Don't switch levels mid-conversation. If you spent the evening on 요, end on 요. Dropping to 내일 봐 at the door is jarring, not intimate. friends parting ways at subway station exit in seoul

What Learners Get Wrong

"Informal Korean means 반말, so if I want to sound casual I should drop the 요."

Korean has more than two settings. 해요체 (the 요 forms) is already casual — it's what adults use with each other all day. Dropping 요 isn't "more casual," it's a different relationship category that has to be earned or agreed on.

"We're the same age, so 반말 is fine."

Same age makes 반말 available, not automatic. In workplaces, rank overrides age, and most people still wait for it to be proposed out loud — 말 놓을까요? (mal noeulkkayo?, "shall we drop the formality?"). Jumping in unprompted is the awkward move.

"내일 봐요 sounds too polite for a friend."

To a close friend, yes — that's what 내일 봐 is for. But to a classmate, a coworker, or someone you've met a handful of times, 내일 봐요 is exactly right and nobody hears it as stiff.

"봬요 and 뵈요 are two different words."

Same word, one spelling argument. 봬요 is the standard form (뵈어요 contracted); 뵈요 is a very common misspelling you'll see everywhere including in messages from native speakers. Spoken, they're identical.

Why Korean Has So Many Ways to Say This

English handles politeness with tone and word choice — "see you tomorrow" said warmly or crisply is still the same sentence. Korean puts it in the verb ending, so the relationship is grammatically encoded before you get to tone at all. That's why one English phrase splits into eight Korean ones.

The stem here is 보다 (boda, to see). Everything on this list is that stem plus a different ending: 봐 is plain (반말), 봐요 adds the polite 요, 뵙겠습니다 uses the humble stem 뵙- plus the formal 습니다. Three speech levels, one verb. Learn this ladder once and it transfers — 가다 (gada, to go) becomes 가 / 가요 / 가겠습니다, 먹다 (meokda, to eat) becomes 먹어 / 먹어요 / 먹겠습니다. You can generate the right form for a verb this post never mentions.

The second layer is honorific vocabulary: some verbs have separate humble or elevated versions, and 보다 → 뵙다 is one of them. This is why 내일 뵙겠습니다 outranks 내일 보겠습니다 even though both are formal — the ending sets the register, the verb choice sets the deference, and they move independently. That's the whole system. Once you see a Korean sentence as a stem carrying two separate politeness dials, you stop memorising phrases and start choosing them.

Related Guides

What You Will Need Next

  • how to say goodbye in Korean formal
  • how to say see you later in Korean
  • when can you use 반말 with someone in Korean

Default to 내일 봐요. It fits nearly everyone who isn't your boss, and being slightly too polite costs you nothing while being too casual costs you standing you can't easily get back. Save 내일 봐 for people who have used 반말 with you first, and reach for 내일 뵙겠습니다 the moment rank enters the room.

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