Korean Speech Levels: When to Use 반말 (and When You'll Offend Everyone)

You're watching a K-drama, and suddenly the whole room gasps. Someone just spoke differently to someone else. You rewind. Listen again. What the hell just happened?

Here's the thing—Korean doesn't work like English. You can't just say "hello" to everyone the same way. The Korean language has built-in respect meters, and if you get them wrong, people notice. Like, really notice. There are documented cases of actual physical fights breaking out because one person used informal speech with a stranger.

So yeah. This matters.

The Problem Nobody Explains Properly

Most Korean courses teach you 해요체 (the informal polite style that ends in -요) and call it a day. Maybe they mention that there's "casual speech for friends." But they skip the part where you need to actually understand what you're doing and why—because getting this wrong doesn't just make you sound awkward. It makes you sound rude.

Korean has seven different speech levels. Seven. Each one has its own verb endings that signal how formal the situation is and how much respect you're showing. The good news? Only four of these are still commonly used in modern Korean. The bad news? You need to understand all four, and the differences between them aren't always obvious.

Let me break this down in a way that actually makes sense.

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7 Korean Speech Levels (But Only 4 That Matter)

Here's the full list, from most formal to most casual:

The ones you actually need to learn: 하십시오체, 해라체, 해요체, and 해체. Master these four different speech levels and you'll cover 99% of real Korean situations.

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The 반말 Question: When Can You Actually Use Informal Speech?

반말 literally means "half-speech"—you're basically cutting the respectful parts off your sentences. It's the 해체 level, and it's what Korean people use with:

Here's what trips up most learners: you don't get to decide when to use 반말. The relationship decides, and often, you literally have to ask permission.

There's a whole social ritual around it. Someone might say "반말해도 돼요?" (Can I speak informally?) or "말 편하게 해요" (Let's speak comfortably). Getting invited to use banmal is actually a sign of acceptance—it means someone sees you as a real friend, not just an acquaintance.

Use it without permission? You're going to have a bad time.

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Formality vs. Politeness: The Distinction That Changes Everything

Here's where things get interesting—and where most resources fail you completely.

In Korean, formality and politeness are two separate things. Formality is about the situation (business meeting vs. casual hangout). Politeness is about your relationship with the person (are they older? Higher status?).

This means you can have four combinations:

So when you're speaking to a senior citizen at a store, you'd use informal polite (해요체). But with your same-age siblings? Informal casual (해체).

Understanding this distinction is genuinely important if you want to learn Korean properly, because it affects every sentence you say.

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How Korean Verb Conjugation Changes Between Speech Levels

The speech level shows up at the end of your verbs. Here's what the same sentence looks like across different levels:

"I eat" (먹다)

"It's delicious" (맛있다)

"Let's go" (가다)

The casual forms are basically the polite forms with the 요 chopped off. That's why 반말 is called "half-speech"—you're literally removing the politeness marker.

If you want to dive deeper into how this works mechanically, we've got a full breakdown in our Korean verb conjugation guide.

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Your Pronouns Change Too

This catches people off guard. When you switch speech levels, your word for "I" changes:

One of the most common mistakes learners make is mixing these up—using 저 with 반말 endings or 나 with formal speech. It sounds weird. Like saying "Might I borrow that, dude?"

Same deal with "you":

But honestly, 너 is tricky. Even in casual speech, Koreans often stick with names because 너 can feel a little aggressive. It's not the equivalent of casually saying "you" in English.

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Common Phrases: Formal and Informal Side by Side

Let's look at how everyday expressions change:

See how the casual forms strip away all the formal endings? That's 반말 in action.

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Some Words Change Completely

Here's something the basic courses don't tell you: certain words have entirely different forms depending on who you're talking to or about.

So with your friend, you'd ask "밥 먹었어?" (Did you eat?). But with your boss or grandparents, it becomes "식사하셨어요?" or even "진지 드셨어요?"—completely different vocabulary.

This is one reason why Korean can feel hard to learn. You're not just learning one language; you're learning multiple registers that require different vocabulary and different grammar.

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The Mistakes That Make You Sound Weird (or Rude)

Mixing speech levels mid-conversation

Switching between 존댓말 (polite speech) and 반말 randomly makes your Korean sound sloppy. Pick one and stick with it for that conversation.

Using 저 with 반말

"저는 밥 먹었어" is wrong. If you're using casual endings, use 나: "나는 밥 먹었어" (or just drop the subject entirely—Korean lets you do that).

Overusing 당신

This one's tricky. 당신 technically means "you," but it's mostly used by married couples or in confrontational situations. Using it casually with strangers is weird at best, aggressive at worst.

Going too formal with friends

This isn't rude, but it creates distance. If you've been invited to use banmal and you keep using 해요체, it signals that you don't want to get closer. Koreans notice.

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Why This Actually Matters for Your Korean

Look—you could technically survive in Korea using only 해요체 for everything. Koreans are generally patient with foreigners who haven't mastered the speech level system yet.

But here's the thing: understanding these levels unlocks a massive part of Korean culture. It's why K-dramas have those gasp-worthy moments when someone switches from 존댓말 to 반말. It's why age is literally the first question Koreans ask when they meet someone new ("몇 년생이세요?"—What year were you born?). The whole social structure of Korean relationships is encoded in how people speak to each other.

When you understand the different Korean speech levels, you stop being a tourist in the language and start actually getting it. You'll catch the subtle dynamics in conversations. You'll know why someone switching from 요 endings to 어 endings is a big deal.

And honestly? When a Korean friend finally invites you to use 반말, it feels like a genuine milestone. It means you're not just "the foreigner who's learning Korean." You're a friend.

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Putting This Into Practice

The speech level system sounds complicated in theory, but it's actually pretty intuitive once you start hearing it in context. That's the key—context.

You need to hear these different speech levels used by real people in real situations. Not in textbook dialogues where everything is carefully scripted, but in Korean dramas, variety shows, YouTube videos, and conversations where the social dynamics actually play out.

Pay attention to when characters switch levels. Notice who uses 반말 with whom. Listen for the verb endings—once you tune into them, you'll start catching the subtle respect dynamics everywhere.

If you're looking for a way to learn from real Korean content without spending hours pausing and looking things up, that's exactly what Migaku is built for. The browser extension gives you instant lookups while you're watching Korean shows, and you can add words directly to your spaced repetition flashcards—so all those speech level patterns actually stick. You can watch a K-drama scene, notice someone switching from 해요체 to 반말, and actually learn the specific vocabulary and conjugations being used. It's a pretty effective way to internalize this stuff naturally instead of trying to memorize charts.

There's a 10-day free trial if you want to try it out. Honestly, once you start learning Korean from content you actually enjoy, the grammar concepts like speech levels start clicking way faster than they do from textbook drills.

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