Honorific particles in Korean

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Someone's title + 님

In this lesson you will learn about Korean honorific particles -님, 씨, -께서, and -께.

The particle -님 is a honorific particle in the Korean language that is added to the end of someone's title to show respect. It is commonly used when addressing older people or people who are in positions of authority, such as teachers or bosses.

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사장 → 사장님 (director of a company)

선생 → 선생님 (teacher)

아버지 → 아버님 (father of someone you want to show respect to)

아들 → 아드님 (son of someone you want to show respect to)

딸 → 따님 (daughter of someone you want to show respect to)

Someone's name 씨

In the Korean language, the honorific particle 씨 is added to the end of someone's name to show respect. It is commonly used when addressing people who are younger or of equal social status to the speaker, such as friends or peers.

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민호 씨, 어디로 가요?

지은 씨 아직 안 왔어요.

Someone + 께서

-께서 is the polite equivalent of subject particles (-이/-가). -께서 is only used with words that represent people. It is not used with objects or animals.

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선생님께서는 집으로 갔어요.

할머니께서 언제 옵니까?

* Unlike -이 / -가, when -은 / -는 is added to the subject -께서 does not disappear. Check out -은 / -는 particle.

Someone + 께

-께 is the polite equivalent of prepositions -에게 / -한테.

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저는 선생님께 선물을 드렸어요.

제 할머니께 편지를 쓰겠어요.

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Check out related topics:

Politeness levels

Quick reference (click to open)

Vowels: a, e, i, o, u

Consonants: b, c, d, f, g, h, j

Syllable: Bra-zil (2 syllables), Ar-gen-ti-na (4), In-di-a (3), Viet-nam (2), thin-king (2), beau-ti-ful (3), good (1)

Batchim: is a final consonant in a syllable. → Bra-zil (batchim: 'l'), Ar-gen-ti-na (batchims: 'r' and 'n'), In-di-a ('n'), Viet-nam ('t', 'm')

Romanization: is a conversion of text (not pronunciation ! ) from different writing system (Korean, Arabic, Russian, etc.) to the Roman (Latin) alphabet.

IPA: is an alphabetic system of phonetic (pronunciation) notation.

Noun: road, user, sister, table, sky

Pronoun: I, my, we, you, they, her

Verb: to go, to study, to think, to feel

Adjective: cold, kind, hungry, curious, expensive

Adverb: quickly, nicely, never, exactly, urgently

Preposition: from, to, on, in, with, till

Conjuction: and, because, if, but, while

Declarative sentence: I learn Korean.

Interrogative sentence: Do you learn Korean?

Imperative sentence: You must learn Korean!

Exclamative sentence: Wow, you learn Korean!

Verb / Adj. stem in Korean: part of a verb or adj. which is left after removing the last syllable -다 ( e.g. 가다 → 가, 예쁘다 → 예쁘, 듣다 → 듣 ).