Welcome back. Today we're going to talk about politeness levels.
But first. - Hey, Billy.
What is it now Keykat?
Wow! If that's how you're going to treat me.
I'm sorry Keykat. There's just so much to teach and so little time.
That's why I'm here. To give you some advice.
Oh, yeah?
Actually, it's for some of your viewers. Here.
Hmm, you're right. I should tell them. Thanks for the free advice Keykat.
Who said this was free?
Let me guess. Another five percent of my profits.
Hey, you learn quick! 화이팅! Good luck!
Okay, this is a message for some people.
If you feel like you're moving through these lessons too quickly, slow down.
Take some time to practice, preferably with a Korean friend or a pen pal.
You can find Korean friends or pen pals online.
And I recommend that you make your own sentences for each topic.
Because it's possible that you could finish this entire series and still not be able to actually use most of what you've learned,
if you're not reviewing along the way.
With any language, actually practicing the concepts is the most important part of learning.
So again, practice everything that you're learning, and re-watch these lessons until you feel comfortable with the concepts.
Now, onto our lesson for today.
So we learned that we can use the (으)세요 form whenever we're talking about someone else and we want to be extra polite.
This can be whenever we're just saying anything about them or asking questions about them.
So here are some examples of that.
For a regular polite question you could ask someone 김치를 좋아해요? 'Do you like kimchi?'
And to be extra polite you could say 김치를 좋아하세요? 'Do you like kimchi?'
And remember that (으)세요 is only used when you're talking about someone else, not something.
For example, the sentence 이것이 김치예요? 'Is this kimchi?' would be acceptable, but do not say this.
이것이 김치세요? That's because this would just be showing extra politeness toward the kimchi.
Now there are some exceptions if you have a verb stem that ends with a 비읍 (ㅂ) or with a 리을 (ㄹ), so let's take a look at those.
First, if the verb stem ends with a 비읍 (ㅂ), you'll want to first remove that,
and then you'll attach 우, followed by 세요.
For example, the verb 굽다 meaning 'to bake' would become 구우세요.
Or if the verb stem ends with a 리을 (ㄹ), you remove it and then just attach 세요.
So the verb 팔다 'to sell' would become 파세요.
And there are some more verbs with conjugation exceptions as there are for any rule, and I'll explain those later as they come up.
So let's talk again about honorific speech. Now (으)세요 is a part of honorific speech,
which is used whenever you're talking about someone else.
Now, who we're talking about might not always be the person who we're currently talking with.
Here's an example of that.
A polite sentence could be 우리 어머니는 친절해요. 'My mom is kind.'
But, even more polite 우리 어머니는 친절하세요. 'My mother is kind.'
Both of these sentences would be appropriate to say to anyone the same age as you or older.
But the second sentence shows even more politeness, and therefore respect, toward your mother.
This can be whether she's in the conversation or not.
And talking about a teacher or boss without using honorific speech, no matter who you're talking with,
even if it's a close friend, could be seen as being disrespectful depending on the situation.
So back to politeness levels.
Honorific speech is only one of the several ways that we can use to talk about or talk to other people.
For example, 하다 can become 하세요.
And we've also learned informal speech in the present tense, so 하다 can become 해요.
In later lessons we'll learn about other essential speech levels including casual speech,
which is what you'll use with your close friends, as well as a couple of other politeness levels.
And the good news is that once you've understood how and when to use honorific speech versus informal speech
the other speech levels all work in that same way.
And with politeness levels remember that age is very important.
You'll want to speak more politely about someone who's older than you than you would about someone who's younger than you.
However, although you will use more polite speech to someone older than you or when speaking about someone older than you,
that person doesn't have to speak the same way to you.
You might use the (으)세요 form when asking a question to someone who's older than you or if you just want to be extra polite,
but that person could just reply with informal speech.
And we'll talk about this in more detail in later lessons.
Now let's do a conversation practice between two people, 진영 and 진희.
Now, 진영 is an older coworker of 진희, so first 진희 says,
아, 언니 'older sister.' This is just a term being used because she's older.
안녕하세요. 'Hello.'
진영 replies, 진희 씨, 지금 바빠요? 'Are you busy now?'
아니요. 'No.' Note that 아니요 is a phrase that by itself just means 'No.'
The opposite would be 네 as we've learned which means 'Yes.'
언니는 바쁘세요? 'How about you older sister?' As in, 'older friend.' 'Are you busy?'
네, 너무 바빠요. 'Yes, I'm so busy' or 'I am too busy.'
아, 언니. 안녕하세요!
진희 씨, 지금 바빠요?
아니요. 언니는 바쁘세요?
네, 너무 바빠요.
But before we go, a few notes.
(으)세요 which we've been using is actually from the form (으)시다.
Now, (으)시다 is now conjugated but it's the form that you could find in a dictionary.
(으)시다 has the same exceptions as (으)세요 that we've been using.
And it's an honorific verb ending, so it can also conjugate just like a regular verb.
When used to make a request however, (으)시다 conjugates to (으)세요 as we've learned.
For example, 읽다 'to read' would become 읽으시다, which then could conjugate to 읽으세요.
However, in other tenses, such as the past tense or the future tense which we'll learn later,
(으)시다 can conjugate differently.
So in this lesson we learned more about using the verb ending (으)세요 as well as politeness levels in general, so
practice this lesson and I'll see you guys again next time.
그럼 다음에 또 봐! Well then, see you again next time!
