한글 배우기 with Eia : 7. Greetings 안녕하세요. 안녕. How to say "Hi!" in Korean

Hi guys

In this session, we will learn various type of Korean greetings.
Greeting is very good way to show your politeness and when you make a friend, first of all you need to greet a person who you are talking to. So it is very important to know what to say in different situation.

Let's learn together!
There are Romanisation under Korean writing. So if you do not know how to read Korean, you can read that romanisation instead of actual Korean reading. However, I am strongly suggesting you to learn how to read out Korean. It is very handy and later on we will have a look a bit of grammar. You have to know by then.

 안녕하세요. Hello.

 안녕하세요.
     an nyeong ha se yo.
 안녕하세요.
     an nyeong ha se yo.

 Hello.
 Hello.

안녕하세요 is the most general greeting. In Korea, we do not use different kinds of greeting depending on the time when you say. Like, in English there are 4 different greeting when you say hello: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening and good night. You say that depending on the time when you are saying but in Korea, for example we only use "Good night" when we go to the bed. I will talk about this later more.
Anyway, 안녕하세요 is very commonly used between people, like "Hello" in English. It is polite version of hello. You should use this to people who you don't really know much or people who are older than you. 

 안녕하십니까. Very polite version of "Hello."

 안녕하십니까?
     an nyeong ha sip ni gga?
 안녕하세요. 
     an nyeong ha se yo.

 Hello. (very polite version)
 Hello.

안녕하십니까 is very very polite version of hello. When you are watching the news on TV, Korean announcer will say "안녕하십니까" or in some Korean drama, office workers will say "안녕하십니까" to their boss or chairman of the company.
You should use this when you meet a person who is older than you or when you need to show your politeness extremely to that person. YOU MUST NOT USE THIS TO YOUR FRIEND!! That would be very weird... 

 

 안녕. Casual version of "Hi."

 안녕.
     an nyeong.
 안녕!
     an nyeong!

 Hi.
 Hi!

안녕 is a casual version of "hi". Usually you use this casual versions to person that you are familiar with and he/she is younger than you. Or between friends.
 One small tip to learn Korean: Longer expressions are used to emphasize your politeness. Shorter expressions are casual, friendly versions. For example, different versions of "Hello": 안녕하십니까(6 characters) > 안녕하세요 (5 characters) > 안녕 (2 characters). As you can see very polite version has the most characters while casual/friendly version has only 2 characters!
Also, another thing is if the sentence is ending with "~요" (~yo), this is polite version of saying. So, use this to people who are older than you or people who are not really friendly with you. If the sentence is ending with "~니다" this is the most polite saying. Use this when you need to show extreme politeness.

 안녕히 가세요. 안녕히 계세요. Good bye.

 안녕히 가세요.
     an nyeong hi ga se yo.
 안녕히 계세요.
     an nyeong hi gye se yo.

 Good bye. (Please go back well)
 Good bye. (Please stay well)

I don't think there are some English expressions which have exactly same meanings as 안녕히 가세요 or 안녕히 계세요. There are some in Japanese but not in English. Use 안녕히 가세요 when you are staying in a place and say good bye to person who is leaving. Or when you and your listener are about to go to your way separately. Say 안녕히 계세요 when you leave the place and say it to the person who is going to stay in that place. 가세요 means "Please go" and 계세요 means "Please stay".
These are also polite saying.

 잘 가요. Bye.

 잘 가요.
      jall ga yo.
 네, 안녕히 가세요.
     ne, an nyeong hi ga se yo.

 Bye. (Go back well)
 Yes, good bye. (Please go back well)

잘가요 is less polite than 안녕히 가세요 but you can still use it to the person who is not that friendly with you. If you want to say 잘 가요 to a person who is your friend and about to same age as you (or younger than you) then say "잘 가" is fine.

 내일 봐요. I'll see you tomorrow.

 잘 가요.
     jall ga yo.
 내일 봐요.
     nae ill bwa yo.

 Bye. (Go back well)
 I'll see you tomorrow.

내일 봐요 is "I will see you tomorrow." 내일 means "tomorrow" and 봐요 means "Let's see". So it means let's meet tomorrow again, or I'll see you tomorrow.

 안녕히 주무셨어요. Good morning, did you sleep well?

 안녕히 주무셨어요?
     an nyeong hi ju mu sheot seo yo?
 그래요, 잘 잤어요?
     geu rae yo, jall jat eo yo?

 Did you sleep well? (Very polite version)
 Yeah, did you sleep well? (polite version)

In English you don't really say "Did you sleep well?" to people unless the listener is your boy friend or girl friend (or your wife/husband). In Korea we say this to, of course, our boy friend/girl friend, our family or even our friends (when you go to school field trip or have a sleep over together). They are ending with "~요" so it is polite saying.
주무셨어요 means "did you sleep" in very polite way. 잤어요 means also "did you sleep" but it is less polite than 주무셨어요. We usually say 주무셨어요 to father, mother and 잤어요 to your cousins, your friend's older siblings, etc.
If you want to say this to your friend casually, you should say "잘 잤어?".

 안녕히 주무세요. Good night.

 안녕히 주무세요.
     an nyeong hi ju mu se yo. 
 잘 자요.
     jall ja yo.

 Good night. (Please sleep well)
 Good night. (Sleep well)

안녕히 주무세요 and 잘 자요 are polite saying of "good night". As I told you before, Korean people use this only when they are going to the bed. 주무세요 means "Please sleep" in polite way. 자요 is less polite.
If you want to say this to your friend use "잘 자".

 감사합니다. Polite version of "Thank you."

 감사합니다.
     gam sa hap ni da.

 Thank you.

감사합니다 is a polite version of Thank you. You should use this to people who are older than you or people who you are not that familiar. 

 고맙습니다. Very polite version of "Thank you." 

 고맙습니다.
     go map seup ni da.

 Thank you.

고맙습니다 is a very polite version of thank you.

 고마워요. Thank you.

 고마워요.
     go ma wo yo.
 아니에요.
     a ni e yo.

 Thank you.
 No / Not at all (It's okay.)

고마워요 is still polite but less than 고맙습니다. 아니에요 literally means "It's not" or "Not at all". So in this case, "It's not a problem" is the one. We also have "You're welcome" in Korean but we don't really use that expression so I will not introduce it here.

 고마워. Casual/friendly version of "Thanks."

 고마워.
     go ma wo.

 Thanks.

고마워 is "Thanks" but you should use this to person who is younger than you or your friend.

 미안합니다. Polite version of "I am sorry."

 미안합니다.
     mi an hap ni da.
 다음부턴 조심해요.
     da eum bu teon jo shim hae yo.

 I am sorry.
 Be careful next time.

미안합니다 is polite version of "I am sorry". Use this when you try to apologize politely.
다음부턴 조심해요 is "Be careful next time". 다음부턴 means "from next time" and 조심해요 means "be careful". Do not use this unless you are really pissed off... We usually say 괜찮아요, meaning "It's fine", when you hear 미안합니다. 

 미안해요. Sorry.

 미안해요.
     mi an hae yo.
 괜찮아요.
     gwen chan a yo.

 Sorry.
 It's fine.

미안해요 is "Sorry". Use this when you try to apologize. This is also polite but it is less polite than 미안합니다.

 죄송합니다. Very polite version of "I am sorry."

 죄송합니다.
     joae song hap ni da.

 I am sorry.

죄송합니다 is very, extremely polite version of saying "I am sorry". When you make a critical mistake, you should use this to a person who are older than you. You might have seen this in Korean drama, when a person made a bad bad mistake at the company, said it to his team leader or his boss.

 미안해. Casual version of "Sorry."

 미안해.
     mi an hae.
 괜찮아.
     gwen chan a.

 Sorry.
 It's alright.

미안해 is a casual version of "Sorry". And 괜찮아 is "I am ok" or "It's alright". 
Use these between friends.

 다녀오겠습니다. 다녀오세요. When you leave home / When you stay home and say bye

 다녀오겠습니다.
     da nyeo o get seup ni da.
 잘 다녀오세요.
     jall da nyeo o se yo.

 I'll go and come back.
 Please go and come back.

I know it sounds weird in English.. But in Korean, it is important to say 다녀오겠습니다 to tell your family that you are leaving. Also, 다녀오세요 is to wish someone's luck and hope someone is coming back well without any accident. 

 다녀왔습니다. 다녀오셨어요. When you come back / When you stay home and say hi

 다녀왔습니다.
     da nyeo wat seup ni da.
 잘 다녀오셨어요?
     jall da nyeo o sheot seo yo?

 I'm home.
 Did you come back well?

It is also quite important to let people in your home know that you are home by saying 다녀왔습니다. And when you are greeting your family member coming back home you should say 다녀오셨어요 which mean "Did you come back well?" Although it looks like questioning, it is not really asking. It is just kind saying of "You are back :) it is nice to see you again"

 잘 먹겠습니다. 잘 먹었습니다. Before eating / After eating

 잘 먹겠습니다.
     jall meok get seup ni da.
      ... Eating a meal ...
 잘 먹었습니다.
     jall meok eot seup ni da.

 I will eat well. (Thank you for the meal)
 I have eaten well. (Thank you for the meal)

These expressions are used before the meal and after the meal. 잘 means "well" and 먹겠습니다 means "I will eat". So, basically it means "I will eat well (Thank you for your effort to prepare these meals)". Also 먹었습니다 means "I ate". So, 잘 먹었습니다 means "I have eaten well (Thank you for your meal, it was tasty)".

 만나서 반갑습니다. Nice to meet you.

 만나서 반갑습니다.
     man na seo ban gap seup ni da.
 저도 반가워요.
     jeo do ban ga wo yo.

 Nice to meet you.
 Nice to meet you, too.

We use these expressions only when you first meet a person. 만나서 means "Because I meet you" and 반갑습니다 means "it is glad (to meet you)". 저도 means "I am also" and 반가워요 means "it is glad (to meet you)". By now you should know. 반갑습니다 is more polite than 반가워요.

That's all for this lecture!
Please practice these expressions so you can greet Korean people politely and fluently!  Thank you!