Basic Greetings

Keyword #
์ธ์‚ฌ
Lesson #
Section
Basic Speaking

TL;DR

  • Hello & goodbye basics ๐Ÿ‘‹ โ€” Learn how to greet people at different times of day and say bye in formal/casual ways
  • Formal vs casual greetings ๐ŸŽฉ โ€” Use ์•ˆ๋…•ํ•˜์„ธ์š” for strangers/elders, ์•ˆ๋…• for friends
  • Situation-specific greetings ๐Ÿฝ๏ธ โ€” Special phrases exist for meals, phone calls, and first meetings

Basic Greetings ๐ŸŒŸ

The most useful phrase in Korean is ์•ˆ๋…•ํ•˜์„ธ์š” (annyeonghaseyo) ๐Ÿ‘‹
It means "hello" and works in almost every situation! You can use it morning, afternoon, or night ๐ŸŒ…๐ŸŒž๐ŸŒ™
์•ˆ๋…•ํ•˜์„ธ์š” is polite and respectful โ€” perfect for:
  • Strangers ๐Ÿคท
  • Older people ๐Ÿ‘ด๐Ÿ‘ต
  • Formal situations ๐Ÿ’ผ
  • When you're not sure what to say ๐Ÿ˜…

Casual Hello ๐Ÿ˜Ž

With friends and people younger than you, use ์•ˆ๋…• (annyeong) instead!
It's the casual, friendly version โ€” no formality needed ๐ŸŽ‰
โ†’ ์•ˆ๋…•! ์ž˜ ์ง€๋ƒˆ์–ด?
(Hi! How have you been?)

Saying Goodbye ๐Ÿ‘‹

Korean has different goodbye phrases depending on who's leaving! ๐Ÿšช
If YOU are leaving:
Use ์•ˆ๋…•ํžˆ ๊ณ„์„ธ์š” (annyeonghi gyeseyo) โ€” literally "please peacefully stay" ๐Ÿ 
โ†’ ์•ˆ๋…•ํžˆ ๊ณ„์„ธ์š”, ์„ ์ƒ๋‹˜!
(Goodbye, teacher!)
If THEY are leaving:
Use ์•ˆ๋…•ํžˆ ๊ฐ€์„ธ์š” (annyeonghi gaseyo) โ€” literally "please peacefully go" ๐Ÿšถ
โ†’ ์•ˆ๋…•ํžˆ ๊ฐ€์„ธ์š”!
(Goodbye!)
Casual goodbye (friends):
Just use ์•ˆ๋…• again! Or ์ž˜ ๊ฐ€ (jal ga) if they're leaving ๐Ÿ™Œ
โ†’ ์ž˜ ๊ฐ€! ๋‚ด์ผ ๋ด!
(Bye! See you tomorrow!)

Time-Specific Greetings โฐ

Korean doesn't really use "good morning" or "good evening" ๐Ÿค”
์•ˆ๋…•ํ•˜์„ธ์š” works for all times of day! Super simple ๐Ÿ’ฏ
Some people say ์ข‹์€ ์•„์นจ์ด์—์š” (good morning) or ์ข‹์€ ๋ฐค ๋˜์„ธ์š” (good night), but these sound a bit unnatural โ€” they're influenced by English ๐Ÿ“š
Stick with ์•ˆ๋…•ํ•˜์„ธ์š” and you'll be fine! โœจ

Special Situation Greetings ๐ŸŽŠ

On the Phone ๐Ÿ“ฑ

When answering the phone, say ์—ฌ๋ณด์„ธ์š” (yeoboseyo)
โ†’ ์—ฌ๋ณด์„ธ์š”? ๋ˆ„๊ตฌ์„ธ์š”?
(Hello? Who is this?)

Before Eating ๐Ÿฝ๏ธ

Say ์ž˜ ๋จน๊ฒ ์Šต๋‹ˆ๋‹ค (jal meokgetseumnida) โ€” literally "I will eat well" ๐Ÿ™
It shows gratitude to whoever prepared the food! Such a lovely custom ๐Ÿ’•
โ†’ ์ž˜ ๋จน๊ฒ ์Šต๋‹ˆ๋‹ค!
(Thank you for the food / Let's eat!)

After Eating ๐Ÿ˜‹

Say ์ž˜ ๋จน์—ˆ์Šต๋‹ˆ๋‹ค (jal meogeotseumnida) โ€” "I ate well"
โ†’ ์ž˜ ๋จน์—ˆ์Šต๋‹ˆ๋‹ค. ๋ง›์žˆ์—ˆ์–ด์š”!
(Thank you for the meal. It was delicious!)

First Time Meeting ๐Ÿค

When meeting someone for the first time, say:
์ฒ˜์Œ ๋ต™๊ฒ ์Šต๋‹ˆ๋‹ค (cheoeum boepgetseumnida) โ€” formal "Nice to meet you" ๐Ÿ‘”
Or more casually:
๋งŒ๋‚˜์„œ ๋ฐ˜๊ฐ€์›Œ์š” (mannaseo bangawoyo) โ€” "Nice to meet you" ๐Ÿ˜Š
โ†’ ์ฒ˜์Œ ๋ต™๊ฒ ์Šต๋‹ˆ๋‹ค. ์ €๋Š” ๋ฏผ์ค€์ด์—์š”.
(Nice to meet you. I'm Minjun.)

Long Time No See! ๐Ÿ‘€

If you haven't seen someone in a while, say ์˜ค๋žœ๋งŒ์ด์—์š” (oraenmanieyo)! ๐ŸŽˆ
Casual version: ์˜ค๋žœ๋งŒ or ์˜ค๋žœ๋งŒ์ด์•ผ
โ†’ ์šฐ์™€! ์˜ค๋žœ๋งŒ์ด์•ผ!
(Wow! Long time no see!)

Exceptions & Notes ๐Ÿ“

์•ˆ๋…• (annyeong) literally means "peace" โ˜ฎ๏ธ
That's why it works for both "hello" and "goodbye" โ€” you're wishing someone peace! Beautiful, right? ๐Ÿ’œ
๊ณ„์„ธ์š” vs ๊ฐ€์„ธ์š” โ€” Don't mix these up! ๐Ÿ˜ฌ
  • ๊ณ„์„ธ์š” = stay (when you're leaving)
  • ๊ฐ€์„ธ์š” = go (when they're leaving)
Think of it this way: you're telling the other person what to do peacefully โ€” either stay or go safely ๐Ÿ›ก๏ธ
Phone greeting ์—ฌ๋ณด์„ธ์š” is ONLY for phones! ๐Ÿ“ต
Don't use it in person โ€” that would be super weird ๐Ÿ™ƒ
You now know all the essential Korean greetings! ๐ŸŽ‰
Practice using these with native speakers and you'll sound polite and natural ๐ŸŒธ
ํ™”์ดํŒ…! (Fighting! / You got this!) ๐Ÿ’ชโœจ
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Try the following exercise.
Fill in the blanks with the appropriate greeting or response. ๐Ÿ—ฃ๏ธ
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  • ์•ˆ๋…•ํ•˜์„ธ์š”? โ†’ ___
      • Answer
      ์•ˆ๋…•ํ•˜์„ธ์š”?
ย 
ย 
  • ์ฒ˜์Œ ___.
      • Answer
      ๋ต™๊ฒ ์Šต๋‹ˆ๋‹ค
ย 
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  • ๋งŒ๋‚˜์„œ ___.
      • Answer
      ๋ฐ˜๊ฐ‘์Šต๋‹ˆ๋‹ค
ย 
ย 
  • ์•ˆ๋…•ํžˆ ___. (when you're leaving)
      • Answer
      ๊ฐ€์„ธ์š”
ย 
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  • ์•ˆ๋…•ํžˆ ___. (when you're staying)
      • Answer
      ๊ณ„์„ธ์š”
ย 
ย 
  • ๋‚ด์ผ ___.
      • Answer
      ๋ด์š” / ๋ต๊ฒŒ์š” / ๋ต™๊ฒ ์Šต๋‹ˆ๋‹ค
ย 
ย 
  • ์˜ค๋žœ๋งŒ์ด์—์š”. โ†’ ๋„ค, ___.
      • Answer
      ์˜ค๋žœ๋งŒ์ด์—์š” / ์ •๋ง ์˜ค๋žœ๋งŒ์ด์—์š”
ย 
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  • ์ž˜ ์ง€๋ƒˆ์–ด์š”? โ†’ ๋„ค, ___.
      • Answer
      ์ž˜ ์ง€๋ƒˆ์–ด์š”
ย 
ย 
  • ์–ด์„œ ___.
      • Answer
      ์˜ค์„ธ์š”
ย 
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  • ์•ˆ๋…•? โ†’ ___. (casual response)
      • Answer
      ์•ˆ๋…•? / ์‘, ์•ˆ๋…•?
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Vocabulary
์•ˆ๋…•ํ•˜์„ธ์š” - Hello (formal)
์ฒ˜์Œ ๋ต™๊ฒ ์Šต๋‹ˆ๋‹ค - Nice to meet you (formal)
๋งŒ๋‚˜์„œ ๋ฐ˜๊ฐ‘์Šต๋‹ˆ๋‹ค - Pleased to meet you
์•ˆ๋…•ํžˆ ๊ฐ€์„ธ์š” - Goodbye (to someone leaving)
์•ˆ๋…•ํžˆ ๊ณ„์„ธ์š” - Goodbye (to someone staying)
๋‚ด์ผ ๋ด์š” - See you tomorrow
์˜ค๋žœ๋งŒ์ด์—์š” - Long time no see
์ž˜ ์ง€๋ƒˆ์–ด์š”? - How have you been?
์–ด์„œ ์˜ค์„ธ์š” - Welcome
์•ˆ๋…• - Hi/Bye (casual)
Common mistakes
  • ๐Ÿšซ Confusing ์•ˆ๋…•ํžˆ ๊ฐ€์„ธ์š” and ์•ˆ๋…•ํžˆ ๊ณ„์„ธ์š” โ€” remember, use ๊ฐ€์„ธ์š” when the other person is leaving, and ๊ณ„์„ธ์š” when you're the one leaving.
  • ๐Ÿšซ Using ์•ˆ๋…•ํ•˜์„ธ์š” as a goodbye โ€” this is only used as a greeting, not when parting.
  • ๐Ÿšซ Forgetting formality levels โ€” ์•ˆ๋…• is casual and should only be used with friends or people younger than you, while ์•ˆ๋…•ํ•˜์„ธ์š” is the safe formal option.
  • ๐Ÿšซ Saying ์ฒ˜์Œ ๋งŒ๋‚˜๊ฒ ์Šต๋‹ˆ๋‹ค instead of ์ฒ˜์Œ ๋ต™๊ฒ ์Šต๋‹ˆ๋‹ค โ€” use ๋ต™๋‹ค (the humble form of "to see/meet") when meeting someone for the first time in formal settings.
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