Hello, goodbye, thank you

One hello for the whole day

Play it and read along: an-nyeong-ha-se-yo. This is the polite hello, and it is the only one you need. Korean does not switch between “good morning”, “good afternoon” and “good evening”. 안녕하세요 works at any hour, with anyone you are not close to: shop staff, teachers, strangers, people older than you.

It is often said with a small nod of the head. The reply is the same phrase back.

Said quickly, the ㅎ becomes very faint. You do not need to copy that yet.

Who is going, and who is staying?

Here are two goodbyes. Both begin with 안녕히; only one word differs. 가세요 is roughly “please go” and 계세요 is roughly “please stay”.

So you choose by what the other person is doing. If they are leaving, say 안녕히 가세요. If they are staying and you are the one walking out, say 안녕히 계세요. When two people part in the street, both are going, so both say 안녕히 가세요.

계 is spelled with the rare vowel ㅖ. After ㄱ it is usually said like 게, so listen for ga against ge.

Two ways to say thank you

감사합니다 and 고맙습니다 both mean “thank you”. They are equally polite, and you may use either one in any situation where you would thank a stranger.

Both are fixed formal phrases. Their ending is more formal than the everyday polite style this course teaches, but these phrases are always said this way, so learn them whole. One sound to notice: ㅂ directly before ㄴ is said as ㅁ, so you hear gam-sa-ham-ni-da, not “hap-ni-da”.

Yes and no

You read 네 in unit 1. It is the polite “yes”. Its partner is 아니요, the polite “no”: three even beats, a-ni-yo.

Koreans also say 네 while listening, to show that they are following, much like “mm-hm” or “I see”. To an English ear it can sound confusingly like “nay”. Ignore the resemblance: 네 is yes.