Korean has one word almost every learner meets first — 안녕하세요 — and one problem nobody warns them about: there is no single "hello" in Korean. The word you pick tells your listener exactly how you see the relationship. Get it wrong and you sound rude to a stranger, or stiff and strange to a close friend.
This is the whole difficulty of Korean greetings in one sentence, and it takes about four minutes to understand. Below you'll find 10 greetings you can actually use, each with audio so you can hear the rhythm, romanization so you can read it today, and the formality level marked so you know when it's safe. Then the two mistakes that give beginners away in the first ten seconds of a conversation.
👋 The 10 Korean Greetings That Cover 95% of Situations
Tap the audio on each one. Korean greetings are heard, not spelled — the intonation is half the meaning.
1. 안녕하세요 — (annyeonghaseyo) — polite The safe default. Works with strangers, shopkeepers, colleagues, your friend's parents. If you learn exactly one greeting, learn this one.
2. 안녕 — (annyeong) — casual Only for close friends your age or younger, and for children. It also means "bye". Never use it with someone older than you or someone you just met.
3. 안녕하십니까 — (annyeonghasimnikka) — formal The deferential form. News anchors, army, job interviews, a shop manager addressing a customer. It sounds impressive but using it with a friend is like bowing to your roommate.
4. 여보세요 — (yeoboseyo) — phone only Korean has a dedicated telephone hello. You do not say 안녕하세요 when you pick up an unknown call.
5. 반갑습니다 — (bangapseumnida) — formal "Pleased to meet you." Pair it with 안녕하세요 the first time you meet someone.
6. 처음 뵙겠습니다 — (cheoeum boepgetseumnida) — formal "This is our first meeting." Business cards, introductions, meeting a partner's family.
7. 오랜만이에요 — (oraenmanieyo) — polite "Long time no see." Enormously common, and it makes you sound like someone who actually speaks Korean rather than someone reciting a textbook.
8. 잘 지냈어요 — (jal jinaesseoyo) — polite "How have you been?" A real follow-up question, not small talk filler — Koreans expect an answer.
9. 어서 오세요 — (eoseo oseyo) — polite "Welcome, come in." You will hear this every single time you walk into a Korean shop or restaurant. You don't say it — you recognize it.
10. 좋은 아침이에요 — (joeun achimieyo) — polite "Good morning." Less common than the English equivalent — most Koreans just say 안녕하세요 in the morning too.
📊 Which Greeting, When
Become bilingual in 30 days with Univext!
Start a lesson with our teacher for free and become bilingual like our 100,000 students!
⚠️ The Two Mistakes Every Beginner Makes
Important
Mistake 1 — using 안녕 to be friendly. Casual speech in Korean is not warmth, it is a claim about status. Saying 안녕 to a stranger, a shopkeeper, or anyone older reads as dismissive, even when your tone is kind. When in doubt, 안녕하세요.
Important
Mistake 2 — answering the phone with 안녕하세요. Korean separates telephone greetings from face-to-face ones. Pick up with 여보세요. This single habit instantly marks the difference between a learner and someone who has actually spoken Korean with Koreans.
There is a third thing, and it is the reason greetings are hard to learn from a list: the bow. Depth, timing, and whether you bow at all change with the same variables as the words. A page cannot teach you that. A conversation can.
Join more than 100,000 students learning on Univext
🎤 The Part a Blog Post Can't Do
You now know which greeting. What you don't have yet is the thing that actually matters when a Korean person is standing in front of you: saying it out loud, at speed, and being corrected the instant you pick the wrong level.
That takes about five minutes with a teacher, and it is the difference between recognising 안녕하세요 and greeting someone.
Important
Say your first Korean hello out loud today. Umi listens, answers you in Korean, and tells you the moment your formality slips — a free lesson, right now, no waiting for a class to start. Try a free lesson in Korean →
🔎 Keep Going
- Korean Alphabet (Hangul): Complete Beginner Guide — read 안녕하세요 instead of memorising it
- Basic Korean Phrases for Travel: 50+ Essential Words
- Best Apps to Learn Korean in 2026 (Tested & Ranked)
Korean greetings are not vocabulary. They are a small social system, and once it clicks the rest of the language gets noticeably easier — because every sentence you speak carries the same choice.
