Basic Greetings
Essential greetings and polite expressions for first meetings.
The first conversation in any new language is greetings, and Korean greetings come with a built-in lesson in politeness levels. 안녕하세요 is the universal polite hello that works in 95% of situations — at cafés, with neighbours, with classmates you have just met, with shopkeepers. It is the form you should use by default for anyone you do not know well.
안녕히 가세요 (goodbye to someone leaving) and 안녕히 계세요 (goodbye while you yourself are leaving) are a useful pair to memorise together because the distinction is essential and trips up beginners. 감사합니다 (thank you, formal) and 고맙습니다 (thank you, slightly warmer) are interchangeable in most everyday contexts, but 감사합니다 is more common in customer-service settings while 고맙습니다 feels more personal. Korean greetings are short, frequent, and culturally heavy — Koreans expect you to greet shopkeepers, colleagues, and even apartment building staff every time you see them.
입니다/예요 (Polite Copula)
Use 입니다 after nouns in formal situations. Use 예요/이에요 in polite speech. 예요 follows vowels, 이에요 follows consonants.
안녕히 + Verb (Polite Farewell)
안녕히 is used with polite verbs to say goodbye or good night. Use 가세요 when the other person leaves, and 계세요 when you leave.
How It Works
The copula — the 'to be' that links a noun to a description — has two forms you need immediately, and choosing between them is about formality, not meaning. 입니다 is the formal form, used in presentations, announcements, job interviews and anywhere you want to sound composed. 예요/이에요 is the polite conversational form, which is what you will actually use most of the time. Both are respectful; 입니다 is simply more distant.
The 예요/이에요 split is purely phonetic. After a noun ending in a vowel you get 예요 (민지예요), and after a consonant you get 이에요 (책이에요). The extra 이 exists to keep the syllables pronounceable, exactly like the vowel-consonant alternations you met in Level 1. There is no meaning difference whatsoever, so this is a pattern to automate rather than think about.
안녕히 works differently and catches almost everyone. It is not a word meaning 'goodbye' — it is an adverb meaning 'peacefully', and it has to be completed by a verb that describes who is moving. 안녕히 가세요 means 'go peacefully' and is said to the person leaving. 안녕히 계세요 means 'stay peacefully' and is said to the person staying. So the correct farewell depends on which of you is walking away, and both people in a parting say different things.
Where You'll Hear It
안녕하세요 works at any time of day, which surprises learners used to separate morning and evening greetings. It covers good morning, good afternoon and good evening, and it is appropriate with shopkeepers, colleagues, teachers and strangers alike. There is no risk of being too formal with it.
The 가세요 / 계세요 split becomes concrete the moment you leave a shop. You are the one leaving, so the staff say 안녕히 가세요 to you, and you say 안녕히 계세요 back to them. Getting this backwards is the single most common beginner slip in Korea, and because it happens at every transaction, it happens a lot.
감사합니다 and 죄송합니다 are the formal pair, and they do more work in Korean than their English equivalents. 죄송합니다 covers not only apologies for mistakes but also the polite 'excuse me' used when squeezing past someone on a crowded subway or interrupting to ask a question. 만나서 반갑습니다 is reserved for genuine first meetings — using it on someone you have already met reads as having forgotten them.
Cultural & Language Note
안녕하세요 literally asks whether you are at peace, and the two goodbyes split along a line English does not draw: 안녕히 가세요 means 'go in peace' and 안녕히 계세요 means 'stay in peace'. Whoever is leaving hears the first; whoever remains hears the second. In a shop, the staff stay and you leave, so they say 안녕히 가세요 and you say 안녕히 계세요.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Mixing up the two goodbyes is the classic beginner slip — telling someone to 'go well' while you are the one walking out the door. If you cannot recall which is which in the moment, 안녕히 계세요 is the safer default when you are the one leaving. Also note that 감사합니다 and 고맙습니다 are both correct; the first is Sino-Korean and slightly more formal, but no one will find either odd.
How to Practice This Lesson
Fix the farewell pair with a physical rule rather than a translation. Ask yourself one question: are my feet moving? If yes, you say 계세요 to the person staying. If no, you say 가세요 to the person going. Practise it by walking in and out of a room saying the right one each time — the movement anchors it better than any mnemonic.
For the copula, drill your own details until they need no thought: 저는 [your name]이에요 / 예요, 저는 [your job]이에요. Choose 예요 or 이에요 by checking whether your name ends in a vowel or consonant, then say the sentence twenty times so the choice stops being a decision.
Finally, say 안녕하세요 out loud with a slight bow. In Korea the words and the small bow travel together, and practising them separately means you will have to combine them under pressure later.