Wednesday 20 June 2012

Basics: Speech levels and politeness 3 -입니다 / immida

In the last post we saw how -요-yo is used to show that you are lower on the scale of life than the person you are talking to. Which means that even when used improperly, it can't be offensive, but it can be funny.

Today we are going to look at the formal -입니다-immi-da.
Remember who this is used for? generally it's people you don't want to or don't have a personal relationship with. That's bosses, colleagues, people in banks, clients, or even strangers (depending on you and your personality).

BasicallyThis is the very basic rule, verbs actually change a little
depending on the stem, but here these are just examples.
If you want the exact rules go to the links section
, to form it you drop the -다-da from the base form and add -입니다-immi-da

It is said that boys use this ending more than girls and girls use -요-yo more than boys. This is because (don't start raging please feminists) girls are lower on the scale than boys. So when boys of the same age meet in a formal context, they don't need to say "im lower than you" and girls are more inclined to. As a male, I kind of understand this. I don't want to be cute and friendly to everyone. If I want to get things done, I get them done, I don't need to be your friend.

In everyday speech you encounter this in introductions, because you don't know the people you're speaking to, and often you don't need to endear yourself to them either. But if you do establish a relationship, then you no longer need to use this ending. If you do continue using it, it can mean that you don't feel close to the person you're talking to.

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