How to decide between formal and informal Korean: 9 Phrases and Exactly Who Each One Is For
How to decide between formal and informal Korean is a choice you make in the first two seconds of every sentence, before you have even picked the verb. You will get it wrong for a reason that has nothing to do with vocabulary: English carries respect in tone of voice and word choice, while Korean carries it in the ending of the verb — so a warm, friendly sentence can land as an insult because of one missing syllable. Here is the actual shape of the problem. Spoken Korean runs on three levels you can hear: 해요체 (haeyo-che) for almost everybody, 합니다체 (hamnida-che) when rank or an audience is in the room, and 반말 (banmal) reserved for people who have agreed to it with you. Pick 해요체 everywhere and you will be slightly stiff with your friends. Pick 반말 by accident and you are the foreigner who talked down to someone's mother. The rest of this page is who gets which. Situation Choosing between formal and informal Korean How much politeness matters Very high — the ending shifts ...