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

• 살다sal-da becomes 삽니다-yo
• 마시다ma-shi-da becomes 마십니다ma-shimm-ida

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.

Korean basics: verbs 2 / Speech levels & politeness 1

So there are two kinds of verbs, descriptive and normal. In their usual forms they are identical. They both take tense endings and politeness endings. Which is what we will look at today.

Speech levels or politeness endings are very important in Korean, and can be very confusing. But the first rule of communication is "don't panic" (that should be the first rule about pretty much anything new). But actually, If you think about it, you do actually change the way you speak depending on you talk to, even in English.
You don't say "alright mate"US English "waddup my beeee-atch to your boss do you? It might be strange to say it to someone you've just met too. But it would be ok to say it to your friend. You probably wouldn't say it to your Dad, and you're pretty weird if you say it to your Grandad. And what if you said it a five year old?

Korean has exactly the same situations, but instead of only using different words or intonation, accent, etc, Korean always puts an ending on the verb. looking back at the different people you would/wouldn't say "alright mate" to we have:

• Your boss
• Someone you've just met
• your friends/peersyou'll see why I used this in a little while
• Your parents & grandparents
• children

Generally the words formal, informal, and familiar are used to describe the endings, Which of the situations above fall into those categories?

That's right! Formal is for situations where there is not yet a personal relationship. Maybe one will develop, but maybe it would be inappropriate, ie with your boss. So logically you would add a formal ending in that situation.

Familiar is where you do have a personal relationship with someone. So that's your friends and family

Well what about informal? That's when things get complicated, because in English there's one thing that we don't really take into account. And that's..... age! Informal applies to situations when you speak to someone who is the same age or younger, but you don't know them well. You're not going to discuss taxes and politics with a child are you?