말단계The Six Korean Speech Levels
Every Korean sentence has to pick a level before it can end, and the choice is made by the ending alone: 갑니다, 가요, 간다 and 가 are one verb, one tense and one meaning at four social settings.
There are six levels. Four are in daily use, two are worth recognising and no more, and one of the four — 해요체 — will carry you through almost every conversation you have.
- 말단계Speech levels
- 6
- 일상 단계In daily use
- 4
- 먼저 배울 것Learn first
- 해요체
- 관련 문법Endings with entries
- 20
한눈에One verb, six levels
| 문장Sentence type | 하십시오체Formal polite | 하오체Formal, archaic | 하게체Familiar | 해라체Plain | 해요체Polite | 해체Casual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 서술Statement | 갑니다 | 가오 | 가네 | 간다 | 가요 | 가 |
| 의문Question | 갑니까? | 가오? | 가는가? | 가니? | 가요? | 가? |
| 명령Command | 가십시오 | 가시오 | 가게 | 가라 | 가세요 | 가 |
| 청유Suggestion | 가시지요 | 갑시다 | 가세 | 가자 | 가요 | 가 |
The four shaded levels are the ones in daily use. 하오체 and 하게체 are here so that you can recognise them — in a sageuk, on a push-door sign, or from a professor — not so that you can produce them.
두 축Formality and politeness are two different dials
Korean grammar counts 격식체 and 비격식체 apart for a reason.
격식체 — formal
하십시오체, 하오체, 하게체, 해라체. Public, distant, and defined by the situation: an announcement is 격식체 whoever is listening. The endings are all distinct — 갑니다, 갑니까, 가십시오, 간다, 가라, 가자.
비격식체 — informal
해요체 and 해체. Personal, immediate, and defined by the relationship. One form covers statement, question, command and suggestion — 가요 is all four — and intonation does the rest.
This is why "more polite" is the wrong axis. 해요체 to your professor over coffee and 합니다체 to the same professor in a seminar are both correct, and swapping them is what sounds odd.
단계별The six, in the order they are worth learning
Two of them you will only ever need to recognise, and they say so.
하십시오체Formal polite
In daily use합쇼체 · 합니다체
Who to: Strangers, customers, an audience, anyone senior in a formal setting.
The level of announcements, news broadcasts, presentations, the army, and anyone in uniform speaking to a customer. It is not "very polite 해요체": it is formal, and formality is a separate thing from politeness. Used between friends it is a joke; used to a shopkeeper it is slightly stiff but never wrong.
Learn it second and learn it whole, because it is the level you will be spoken to in all day — by every announcement, every cashier and every recording — long before you need to produce it.
The catch
The propositive is the trap. -읍시다 is taught as the 합니다체 "let's", and grammatically that is what it is, but it does not point upward: saying 같이 갑시다 to your boss is presumptuous. To a senior the suggestion goes as 가시지요 or as a question — 같이 가실까요?
해요체Polite
In daily useWho to: Everyone you do not know well and everyone senior to you, in ordinary conversation.
Learn this one first and learn it completely. It is polite without being formal, it works on strangers, shopkeepers, colleagues, professors and friends' parents, and it is what nine-tenths of the Korean you hear in daily life is in.
Its shape is the reason it is easy: 해요체 is 해체 plus 요. One syllable, glued to the end of the casual form, and the whole sentence changes register — 가 becomes 가요, 먹었어 becomes 먹었어요. Nothing else in the sentence moves.
The catch
One form covers all four sentence types, and only intonation separates them: 가요 is "I'm going", "are you going?", "please go" and "let's go". That is a feature — it is four fewer endings to learn — and it is why Korean questions in this level are heard rather than read.
하오체Formal, archaic
Recognise onlyWho to: Nobody, in speech. Sageuk, older novels, public signs.
Formal, distant, and addressed to an equal — which is a combination modern Korean has no use for, so it has all but gone. What survives is fossilised: the -시오 on public signs (미시오 — push, 당기시오 — pull), and every historical drama ever made.
Worth ten seconds of your life: recognise it, never produce it.
하게체Familiar
Recognise onlyWho to: An older man to an adult junior — a professor to a graduate student, a father-in-law to his son-in-law.
The one rung that is neither dead nor learnable: it exists, it is used, and almost nobody who would use it is under sixty. It says I am your senior, and you are an adult — which is why it goes with 자네 for "you" rather than 너.
You will be addressed in it before you ever use it, and if you are addressed in it the reply is 해요체 or 합니다체, not 하게체 back.
The catch
-네 is two different endings and they are not the same rung. 비가 오네! — "oh, it's raining" — is the everyday exclamation, which sits in 해체 and is used by everybody. 하게체 -네 is a flat statement to a junior: 내가 가네. Same syllable, different level, and the giveaway is whether the sentence is a discovery or a statement.
해라체Plain
In daily use한다체 (in writing)
Who to: Children, close friends of long standing, yourself — and every book, newspaper and exam paper.
Two lives in one rung. Spoken, it is the blunt end of 반말 — an adult to a child, and friends who have known each other since school. Written, it is the neutral default: every newspaper, textbook, novel and TOPIK reading passage is in 한다체, addressed to no one in particular.
That second life is why a learner has to be able to read it fluently long before there is any occasion to say it. The written style is the reason 간다 looks normal on a page and lands as rude in a conversation.
The catch
Only -자 and -어라 carry an addressee. A diary entry in 한다체 is talking to nobody and is not rude to anybody, which is exactly why the written style could take this rung over.
해체Casual
In daily use반말
Who to: Close friends, people clearly younger than you, family — after it has been agreed.
해요체 with the 요 taken off. That is not a mnemonic, it is the derivation, and it means every 해요체 sentence you can already say is one syllable away from 반말.
Which is the danger. The form is free; the permission is not. Dropping into 반말 with someone who has not offered is the single most memorable rudeness a foreigner can commit in Korean, and it is memorable precisely because the form is so easy to reach.
The catch
The offer has a script. 말 놓으세요 — "please speak casually" — is what a junior says to a senior; 말 놔도 돼? is what an equal asks. Wait to be asked, agree, and then switch. Age alone does not license it, and a Korean five years younger than you may still be -요 for a year.
요 하나로The 요 switch
The single most useful fact about Korean politeness.
It works in reverse too, and that is the risk: every polite sentence you know is one deleted syllable away from 반말. Delete it only after it has been offered.
관련 문법Every ending on this page has its own entry
With the dictionary's own examples, usage notes and 받침 rules.
다음Where to go next
자주 묻는 질문Common questions
How many speech levels does Korean have?
Six, traditionally counted as four formal levels (하십시오체, 하오체, 하게체, 해라체) and two informal ones (해요체, 해체). Only four are in daily use: 해요체 for everyday politeness, 하십시오체 for formal situations, 해체 for close friends, and 해라체 in writing and to children. 하오체 and 하게체 you need to recognise, not produce.
Which Korean speech level should I learn first?
해요체, and it is not close. It is polite enough for strangers, professors and shopkeepers, casual enough that it is never stiff, and it is what most spoken Korean is in. 합니다체 is next, because you will be spoken to in it constantly — announcements, service staff, the news — long before you need to produce it.
Is 해요체 or 합니다체 more polite?
They are equally polite and differ on formality. 합니다체 is the formal register: presentations, broadcasts, the military, staff addressing customers. 해요체 is the everyday polite one. A meeting can be 해요체 throughout; an announcement over a PA system will not be.
What is the difference between 해체 and 해요체?
One syllable. 해요체 is 해체 with 요 stuck on the end: 가 → 가요, 먹었어 → 먹었어요, 뭐 해? → 뭐 해요? Nothing else in the sentence changes, which is why the two are best learnt as one form with a switch rather than as two paradigms.
Do Koreans still use 하오체 and 하게체?
하오체 survives only in historical dramas and on signs — 미시오 for push, 당기시오 for pull. 하게체 is alive but narrow: an older man to an adult junior, typically a professor to a graduate student or a father-in-law to his son-in-law, and it comes with 자네 for "you". If either is addressed to you, reply in 해요체.
Word pairs, definitions and example sentences from the 국립국어원 한국어기초사전, used under CC BY-SA 2.0 KR.