TTMIK Level 1 Lesson 3

After listening to this lesson, you will be able to say good-bye in Korean.

Do you remember how to say “Hello.” in Korean?

안녕하세요. [an-nyeong-ha-se-yo]

If you remember 안녕하세요, that is fantastic. And if you even remember that “안녕” in 안녕하세요 means “peace” and “well-being”, that is even more fantastic.

안녕 [an-nyeong] = well-being, peace, health

And in Korean, when you say “Good-bye” in formal/polite Korean, 존댓말 [jondaetmal], there are two types of expressions, and both of these expressions have the word 안녕 [an-nyeong] in them.

One is when you are the one who is leaving.

And the other is when you are the one who is staying.

If you are leaving, and the other person is (or the other people are) staying, you can say:

안녕히 계세요. [an-nyeong-hi gye-se-yo]

If you are staying, an the other person is (or the other people are) leaving, you can say:

안녕히 가세요. [an-nyeong-hi ga-se-yo]

For now, don’t worry about the literary meaning of the expressinos and just learn them as they are, but if you are really curious and if we were forced to translate these greetings, they would be translated like this.

안녕히 계세요. = Stay in peace.

안녕히 가세요. = Go in peace.

But again, don’t worry about the literal meaning of these greetings JUST YET!

** One tip Hyunwoo would like to give you:

When Korean people say 안녕하세요 [an-nyeong-ha-se-yo], 안녕히 계세요 [an-nyeong-hi gye-se-yo] or 안녕히 가세요 [an-nyeong-hi ga-se-yo], they don’t always pronounce EVERY single letter clearly. So often times, what you would hear is just the ending part, “세요” [se-yo].

So you can deliberately sound more fluent by just saying 세요 [se-yo] for all of these occasions.

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