Korean Language Tutorial

Lesson 24

Korean Lesson: Lessons 24
Conjugating with Honorifics
In previous Lesson, you learned how to conjugate verbs and adjectives into the past, present and future forms. You also learned that those conjugations are hardly ever used in speech and are most often used when writing a book, test, article or diary. In this lesson, you will learn the basic word conjugations that are more commonly used in speech.
What are Honorifics in Korean?
To this point, you haven’t learned anything about Honorifics. In Korean, depending on who you are speaking to, you must use different conjugations of the same word. The different conjugations imply respect and politeness to the person you are speaking to. Depending on that person’s age and seniority, you must speak differently to that person.
The reason this is so hard for English speakers to understand is that we have nothing like this in English. We can make some sentences sound polite by adding ‘please’ and ‘thank you,’ but you can only use those words in a limited amount of sentences. For example, if somebody asked you “where did you go yesterday?” You could respond:
I went to school yesterday.
In English, regardless of whether you were speaking to your girlfriend’s grandfather or your best friend, that sentence would look and sound exactly the same. In Korean, you must use a higher respect form when speaking to somebody older or higher in position
I started learning Korean a few months before I work to Korea. I was not studying very hard or often, so my Korean was extremely basic. When I arrived at the airport in Seoul, was driven directly to the training center and introduced to trainor. The trainor said “I am happy you are training here before you are going to youre working area,” to which I replied:
나도 (the lower respect form of saying “me too”)
Instead of being impressed that I least knew some words in Korean, the look on his face was as if somebody had just kidnapped his daughter.
Never, never underestimate the importance of honorific endings in Korean.
Keep in mind that all these conjugations with different honorific endings have exactly the same meaning. You will learn how to conjugate using honorifics in the following ways:
1) Informal low respect
When talking with friends, people you are close with, younger people and family.
2) Informal high respect
Used in most situations, even in formal situations despite being called “informal.” This is usually the way most people speak when they are trying to show respect.
3) Formal high respect
This is a very high respect form that is used when addressing people who deserve a lot of respect from you. It is hard to describe perfectly, but honestly, the difference between ‘Informal high respect’ and ‘Formal high respect’ is not very big. As long as you speak in either of these two ways, you will not offend anyone.
Before you start! Remember the rule you learned in Lesson 5: When adding something to a word stem, if the last vowel in the stem is ㅏ or ㅗ, you must add 아 plus whatever you are adding. If the last vowel is anything other than ㅏ or ㅗ, you must add 어 plus whatever you are adding. If the syllable of the stem is 하, you add 하여 which can be shortened to 해.
Verbs
Present Tense
You learned in previous Lesson how to conjugate verbs to the present tense by adding ㄴ/는다 to the stem of the word. To review:
저는 먹다 = I eat (not conjugated)
저는 먹는다 = I eat (conjugated – present tense)
저는 배우다 = I learn (not conjugated)
저는 배운다 = I learn (conjugated – present tense)
There are three more conjugations in the present tense that you should be aware of.
1) Informal low respect
All you need to do is add ~어/아/여 to the stem of the verb:
나는 항상 저녁에 음식을 먹어 = I always eat food in the evening (먹 + 어)
나는 너의 선생님을 항상 봐 = I always see my teacher (보 + 아)
나는 항상 아침에 운동해 = I always exercise in the morning (운동하 + 여)
2) Informal high respect
This is done the exact same way as ‘Informal low respect’ but you also add ‘요’ to the end of the word. Adding 요 to the end of anything in Korean makes it more respectful:
저는 항상 저녁에 음식을 먹어요 = I always eat food in the evening (먹 + 어요)
저는 저의 선생님을 항상 봐요 = I always see my teacher (보 + 아요)
저는 항상 아침에 운동해요 = I always exercise in the morning (운동하 + 여요)
3) Formal high respect
This is done very similar to the conjugation you learned in previous Lesson – that is, adding ㄴ/는다 to the stem of the word. To conjugate using the Formal high respect honorific ending, you add ㅂ니다/습니다 to the end of the word stem. If a word stem ends in a vowel, you add ㅂ to the last syllable and 니다 follows. If a word stem ends in a consonant, you add 습니다 to the word stem.
저는 항상 저녁에 음식을 먹습니다 = I always eat food in the evening (먹 + 습니다)
저는 저의 선생님을 봅니다 = I always see my teacher (보 + ㅂ니다)
저는 항상 아침에 운동합니다 = I always exercise in the morning (운동하 + ㅂ니다)
Past Tense
You learned in previous Lesson how to conjugate verbs to the past tense by adding 었다/았다/였다 to the stem of the word. To review:
저는 먹다 = I eat (not conjugated)
저는 먹었다 = I ate (conjugated – past tense)
저는 배우다 = I learn (not conjugated)
저는 배웠다 = I learned (conjugated – past tense)
The three new conjugations should be very simple for you now:
1) Informal low respect
Instead of adding 었다/았다/였다 to a word stem, remove 다 and add 어 after 었/았/였:
나는 먹었어 = I ate (먹 + 었어)
나는 들어봤어 = I listened (들어보 + 았어)
나는 운동했어 = I exercised (운동하 + 였어)
2) Informal high respect
Just add 요 to the end of the Informal low respect conjugations:
저는 먹었어요 = I ate (먹 + 었어요)
저는 들어봤어요 = I listened (들어보 + 았어요)
저는 운동했어요 = I exercised (운동하 + 였어요)
3) Formal high respect
After adding 었/았/였 instead of adding 다 add 습니다:
저는 먹었습니다 = I ate (먹 + 었습니다)
저는 들어봤습니다 = I listened (들어보 + 았습니다)
저는 운동했습니다 = I exercised (운동하 + 였습니다)
Future Tense
You learned in previous Lesson how to conjugate verbs to the future tense by adding 겠다to the stem of the word. To review:
저는 먹다 = I eat (not conjugated)
저는 먹겠다 = I will eat (conjugated – future tense)
저는 배우다 = I learn (not conjugated)
저는 배우겠다 = I will learn (conjugated – future tense)
The three new conjugations should be very simple for you now:
1) Informal low respect
Instead of adding 겠다to a word stem, remove 다 and add 어 after 겠:
나는 먹겠어 = I will eat (먹 + 겠어)
나는 배우겠어 = I will learn (배우 + 겠어)
2) Informal high respect
Just add 요 to the end of the Informal low respect conjugations:
저는 먹겠어요 = I will eat (먹 + 겠어요)
저는 배우겠어요 = I will learn (배우 + 겠어요)
3) Formal high respect
After겠instead of adding 다 add 습니다:
저는 먹겠습니다 = I will eat (먹 + 겠습니다)
저는 배우겠습니다 = I will learn (배우 + 겠습니다)
Try looking at all the verb conjugations you know together in one table. This table will include the conjugation you learned in previous Lesson, often called “Formal low respect”
먹 /Past /Present /Future
Informal low /먹었어 /먹어 /먹겠어
Informal high /먹었어요 /먹어요 /먹겠어요
Formal low /먹었다 /먹는다 /먹겠다
Formal high /먹었습니다 /먹습니다 /먹겠습니다
자다 /Past /Present /Future
Informal low /잤어 /자 /자겠어
Informal high /잤어요 /자요 /자겠어요
Formal low /잤다 /잔다 /자겠다
Formal high /잤습니다 /잡니다 /자겠습니다
이해하다 /Past /Present /Future
Informal low /이해했어 /이해해 /이해하겠어
Informal high /이해했어요 /이해해요 /이해하겠어요
Formal low /이해했다 /이해한다 /이해하겠다
Formal high /이해했습니다 /이해합니다 /이해하겠습니다
Adjectives
Adjectives are conjugated the exact same way as verbs when conjugating with these three honorific endings. The major difference in conjugating adjectives and verbs is when conjugating in the most basic form (which we did in previous Lesson). To conjugate adjectives with ‘Informal low respect,’ Informal high respect’ and Formal high respect,’ follow the same rules as verbs:
비싸다 /Past /Present /Future
Informal low /비쌌어 /비싸 /비싸겠어
Informal high /비쌌어요 /비싸요 /비싸겠어요
Formal low /비쌌다 /비싸다 /비싸겠다
Formal high /비쌌습니다 /비쌉니다 /비싸겠습니다
길다 /Past /Present /Future
Informal low /길었어 /길어 /길겠어
Informal high /길었어요 /길어요 /길겠어요
Formal low /길었다 /길다 /길겠다
Formal high /길었습니다 /깁니다 * /길겠습니다
*Irregular conjugation. You will learn about irregulars a few lessons later.
착하다 /Past /Present /Future
Informal low /착했어 /착해 /착하겠어
Informal high /착했어요 /착해요 /착하겠어요
Formal low /착했다 /착하다 /착하겠다
Formal high /착했습니다 /착합니다 /착하겠습니다
Saying “I” Politely
You probably noticed by now, but there are two ways (well, 4 actually) to say “I” in Korean. One of them is considered polite, and the other one is considered casual.
저 is considered polite 나 is considered casual
In addition, when you add the subject marker particle 가 to 저 or 나 (to identify that “I” is the subject of a part of a sentence), 저 changes to 제 – 나 changes to 내
저는 and 나는 = used when “I” is the subject of the main part of the sentence
제가 and 내가 = used when “I” is the subject of a part of a sentence which is not the main part. For example: When I came home, my mother made a hamburger.
“I” is only the subject of the part of the sentence which is indicating the time that your mother made a hamburger. “My mother” is the subject of the entire sentence. In cases like this, you would used 제가/내가 to represent “I”.