8.2. Verbs: Honorifics

When a Korean speaker uses a verb to describe the action of a person he especially esteems (or honors), he makes the verb form HONORIFIC. Esteemed (honored) people in Korea include parents and other older relatives; older people in general; high officials; people of education ? teachers, doctors, other professional people.

The honorific marker is a TWO-SHAPE ENDING attached in the shape -으시- to consonant bases but -시- to vowel bases. The HONORIFIC BASE of a verb is its base + this honorific marker. In other words, by adding the honorific marker to a verb base, you are creating a new verb base ending in -시-.

The honorific infinitive consists of the honorific marker -(으)시- + the infinitive ending
-어 , with the expected abbreviation of -(으)시어 to -(으)셔, except, that is, when followed by 요.

Observe the following forms:

As the last example shows, when you have an L-extending vowel base you attach the honorific marker to the UNEXTENDED BASE. Note also the treatment of ㄹ-ㄷ and w -ㅂ consonant bases (들- and 더w- above).

8.2.2. The Honorific Polite Style: 하세요

We have already mentioned above the sorts of people that might qualify as ‘esteemed’, and therefore be worthy of honorification. Often, of course, when questions are asked, the esteemed person is the listener (you):

17. 한국말을 무엇으로 배우세요?
    What do you learn Korean from [“with”]? (the new particle is explained later this lesson) In the following sentence, a parent is spoken of in honorific terms:
18. 아버님은 매일 약을 드세요.
    Father takes medicine every day.

Just as important as showing esteem for others is to avoid showing it for yourself:
NEVER use honorific verb forms to describe your own actions.
Compare the question and the answer from the conversation of this lesson:

19. 미스 리 : 요즘 뭘 하세요?
    What are you doing lately?
20. 유니스 : 한국말을 공부해요.
    I’m studying Korean.

Ordinarily, a polite verb (in 해요-style) is made honorific polite by changing -어요 or -아요 to -으세요 when the verb base ends in a consonant, or just adding -세요 when the verb base ends in a vowel. If the verb is an L-extending one, then the ㄹ is omitted, and the verb is treated as though it ended simply in a vowel (e.g. 사-ㄹ- live, becomes 사세요):

A few verbs come in pairs ? a neutral and an honorific one (that is, the neutral verb and the honoric verb are completely different and unrelated forms):

The ending -(으)세요 is sometimes written (and sometimes pronounced) -(으)셔요, which is the contracted form of honorific -(으)시- + -어요. However, it is considered more standard to use the forms in -(으)세요. The ending -(으)세요 is the first two-shape verb ending you have seen. Here is a description of how it behaves with different verbs. Vowel-final bases attach to the vowel-less (i.e., 으-less) ending of two-shape endings:

Consonant-final bases attach to the shape with initial -으-:

As the last example shows, the only tricky point to remember here concerns w -ㅂ verbs, for which the following rule holds:

–w + -으 > 우

It is vital that you remember the following point: the honorific part of a verb has no connection whatever with the social style being used. All the verbs in this lesson are in the POLITE STYLE; some of them are honorific, and some are not. Verb forms in any of the Korean social styles can either be made honorific or left as they are, without respect to the suffixes which show the social level on which the speakers are conversing. This means that the honorific marker can be put before the endings of any social style-not just the polite style -when the speaker uses the verb for the actions of an especially esteemed person.

Below is a list of some of the verbs you have learned, in the polite (= 해요) style and the honorific polite (= 하세요) style.

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