POLITENESS LEVELS · 8
Someone you just met
해요체 · 합쇼체
With a stranger your own age or older, haeyo is the safe default: polite without sounding stiff. The set phrase for “nice to meet you” is …
처음 뵙겠습니다.Pleased to meet you. (set formal greeting)- A close friend your age해체(반말)Close friends born in the same year talk in banmal, the casual style. Using haeyo with a close friend would feel distant, almost like you're upset.
- Your boss at work합쇼체Reports, meetings and anything official to a superior go in the formal hapsyo style. In a relaxed chat by the coffee machine, haeyo is fine — but never banmal unless they clearly invite it.
- Staff at a shop or café해요체Customers and staff both use haeyo. It's polite, quick and friendly — the everyday style of buying things in Korea, whatever anyone's age.
- A friend a few years older해요체You start in haeyo with an older friend. Once you're close, the older one often says “speak comfortably” (mal pyeonhage hae), and you switch to banmal. It's their call to make, not yours.
- A child해체(반말)Adults normally talk to children in banmal, even strangers' kids. Children answer adults in haeyo — learning when to switch is part of growing up.
- Strangers online해요체Comments, reviews and questions to strangers are usually in haeyo, since you can't know anyone's age. Thank-yous and anything to a company's account are often in hapsyo. Banmal to a stranger online reads as rude.
- Family해체(반말)Most people speak banmal with parents and siblings. With grandparents — and in some families with parents too — people use haeyo plus honorific words like jinji (a respectful word for a meal).