Lesson 1: Greetings and Basic Introductions

Lesson 1: Greetings and Basic Introductions

You walk into your first Korean class. Someone smiles and says 안녕하세요! By the end of this lesson, you will be able to greet them, introduce yourself, thank them, and choose a goodbye that fits who is leaving.

Start with three useful chunks: 안녕하세요 (hello), 저는 …입니다 (I am …), and 감사합니다 (thank you). Learn them as spoken phrases before trying to analyze every ending. Then use the explanations below to build your own introduction.

Read the blocks, then listen to the phrase

Hangul, the Korean alphabet, groups letters into syllable blocks. 안녕 has two blocks, 안 and 녕. In 안, initial ㅇ is silent, ㅏ is the vowel a, and final ㄴ is n. In 녕, ㄴ is n, ㅕ is yeo, and final ㅇ is ng. The same letter ㅇ therefore behaves differently at the beginning and end of a block.

Romanization is a reading aid, not an exact English pronunciation guide. Here eo represents ㅓ, eu represents ㅡ, and ae represents ㅐ; do not read each Latin letter separately. 이름, ireum, has two syllables: 이-름. 네, ne, has one. Listen to Korean recordings rather than assigning English-style word stress to the capitalized syllables of a respelling.

Some written sounds change beside other sounds. 입니다 is pronounced approximately [임니다], and 감사합니다 [감사함니다]: written ㅂ before ㄴ sounds like ㅁ. The brackets show pronunciation in Hangul; keep the original spelling when writing. You do not need the whole sound-change system today. Recognizing these two common phrases is enough to start.

Choose polite speech for a first meeting

Politeness and formality are related, but they are not the same distinction. Everyday polite Korean includes 해요체, the conversational style heard in 안녕하세요. 감사합니다, 고맙습니다, and 입니다 use a more formal polite style, often called 합니다체. Both styles belong in respectful conversation. Saying 안녕하세요 and then 감사합니다 is natural.

안녕하세요 works in the morning, afternoon, or evening. It comes from a word about being well or at peace, but its normal greeting function is simply “hello.” Do not treat 하세요 as a detachable English word meaning “please” or as the entire grammar of politeness.

감사합니다 and 고맙습니다 are both formal polite thanks. Neither needs to be reserved for a special occupation or ranked as inherently warmer. The romanizations above do not show every sound detail: in 고맙습니다 and 반갑습니다, listen for a tense ㅆ sound before the final 니다: [고맙씀니다], [반갑씀니다].

Casual speech, often called 반말, is useful in relationships where that style is established. Being the same age, being classmates, or being older than someone does not automatically establish it. For a new adult acquaintance, polite speech is a practical starting choice.

Compare 고마워 with 고마워요: the latter is polite. You will meet several ways to express the same meaning. In practice questions, pay attention when a particular speech style or phrase is requested.

Try a choice: A café worker you have just met hands you your drink. Which of 고마워 and 감사합니다 gives you a polite thank-you? 감사합니다. This does not mean every service interaction requires only 합니다체; a polite conversational form can also fit.

Build your own introduction

저 (jeo) is the humble form of “I/me”; 나 (na) is the ordinary non-humble form. Use 저 in the polite introductions practiced here. It is not a separate word for a different person, and 나 is not inherently insulting. The choice belongs to the relationship and style of the conversation.

Add the topic particle 는 to 저:

저 + 는 → 저는 — as for me / I …

저는 지수입니다. — I am Jisu.

The pattern is 저는 + name + 입니다. 입니다 supplies the formal polite “am/is/are” meaning when identifying someone or something. Attach it directly to the name: 지수입니다, 데이비드입니다, 사라입니다. It is not a free-standing word separated from its noun by a space.

는 marks the topic: what the sentence is about. A related form, 은, follows a noun ending in a consonant. You can see it in 이름은 below. A topic is not necessarily a person doing an action; an introduction identifies the speaker.

Korean often leaves understood information unspoken. In answer to a name question, 지수입니다 is a complete, natural response. Practice the full 저는 pattern to learn how it is built, while recognizing that speakers can omit 저는 when everyone knows who is being introduced.

Another useful introduction is 제 이름은 사라입니다 — “My name is Sarah.” Here 제 이름은 sets up “my name” as the topic. You can keep a name in its own spelling, as in 저는 Sarah입니다; the Korean spelling 사라 is supplied for this lesson's examples.

Build it yourself: Replace 지수 with 데이비드, the supplied spelling of David. Keep the topic and ending. Your sentence is 저는 데이비드입니다. Now remove only 저는: 데이비드입니다. Both identify the speaker when the context is a self-introduction.

Ask and answer a name question

이름이 뭐예요? (ireumi mwoyeyo?) means “What is your name?” in polite conversational Korean. 이름이 contains 이름 plus the subject particle 이; 뭐 means “what.” Learn the whole question for now. Polite endings do not make every question equally suitable for every relationship: a more respectful name question is 성함이 어떻게 되세요?, using 성함, an honorific word for name.

Try this short first meeting:

A: 안녕하세요! 저는 지수입니다. 이름이 뭐예요?
Hello! I am Jisu. What is your name?

B: 안녕하세요! 저는 사라입니다. 만나서 반갑습니다.
Hello! I am Sarah. Nice to meet you.

A: 네, 반갑습니다.
Yes, nice to meet you.

만나서 반갑습니다 expresses pleasure at meeting someone. The shorter 반갑습니다 works when the meeting is already clear. 만나서 반가워요 is a polite conversational alternative. An open translation can have more than one good answer.

Use 네 and 아니요 for simple polite yes/no answers. 예 is another polite “yes.” These are response words, not replacements for a greeting or a thank-you. Later, you will learn how Korean responses to negative questions can differ from English; today's dialogue uses a straightforward positive response.

Choose a goodbye by watching the other person

Ask yourself: Is the person I am addressing leaving, or staying here? Your own movement alone is not enough to decide.

If you leave a shop while the owner remains, you say 안녕히 계세요. The owner says 안녕히 가세요 to you. If you and a classmate both leave the classroom and part ways, both can say 안녕히 가세요. Each is addressing someone who is leaving.

The casual pair works by the same addressee-based choice: 잘 가 to a departing friend; 잘 있어 to a friend who stays. 안녕 can serve as a casual goodbye in either case.

Solve three departures before reading the answers:

1. Your guest leaves your home while you remain. What polite goodbye do you say?
2. You leave your friend's home while your friend stays. You normally use casual speech together. Which “stay well” phrase fits?
3. You and a new classmate leave a café together, then head in different directions. Can you both say 안녕히 가세요?

Answers: 1. 안녕히 가세요. 2. 잘 있어. 3. Yes: both addressees are leaving. The useful contrast is 가세요 versus 계세요, not “say the opposite of whatever I do.”

Put the whole conversation together

Imagine arriving at a language exchange. Say a polite hello, give your chosen name, and say that you are pleased to meet your partner. Your partner helps you find a seat: thank them. At the end, your partner stays to meet someone else while you leave: choose your goodbye.

One possible sequence is 안녕하세요. 저는 사라입니다. 만나서 반갑습니다. 감사합니다. 안녕히 계세요. Pause between the situations; these are turns in a conversation, not a speech to recite without listening.

Repeat the task with a different name, then change the departure so both people leave. Finally, imagine an established casual friend and change only the greeting, thanks, and goodbye. Explaining why a phrase changes is a better check of understanding than copying it five times.

For pronunciation, compare dictionary recordings with your own attempt, focusing first on recognizable syllables and complete phrases. The National Institute of Korean Language's entry for 해요체 distinguishes everyday polite speech from more formal styles. Its Korean–English Learners' Dictionary provides word meanings and audio for further practice.

In Lesson 2, you will add numbers, ages, and family introductions to these first-meeting skills.