Lesson 1.2 – Greetings! How to say “Goodbye” in Korean

Another day, another lesson! 

We’ve already finished Hello and Nice to meet you, greetings you use when you meet someone. Today’s lesson will be on ‘How to say “Goodbye” in Korean’. You could simple say ‘Bye’ in English but isn’t it better to know the ways of saying it in Korean? Like always, we’ll be dividing it into informal and formal forms. This lesson could be a little lengthy because there are so many different ways of saying goodbye. So let’s get started, shall we?

The informal way of saying Goodbye is – 안녕 (Romanised pronunciation : Annyeong). Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? You’re right! It’s the same as saying ‘Hello’. You can use it for both of them. Remember it’s the informal form which you can use only with people you’re close to, your friends or someone who is younger to you.

The formal way of saying Goodbye is divided into the standard way and more formal way, same as our previous lessons but each has 2 types depending on who is leaving and who is staying back. Let’s go over it –

1. STANDARD WAY – 안녕히 가세요 (Romanised pronunciation : An-nyeong-hi Ga-se-yo). If the other person is leaving and you’re the one staying back, you can say 안녕히 가세요 – which roughly translates to “Go peacefully”. You can use it with your colleagues, someone older than you or even with someone who you don’t know.

MORE FORMAL WAY –  안녕히 가십시오 (Romanised pronunciation : An-nyeong-hi Ga-sip-si-o). This is a really formal way of saying goodbye if the other person is leaving. It’s mostly used in TV shows or maybe with your super boss.

2. STANDARD WAY – 안녕히 계세요 (Romanised pronunciation : An-nyeong-hi – Gye-se-yo). If you’re the one who is leaving and the other person is staying back, you can say 안녕히 계세요 – which roughly translates to “Stay peacefully”. Same like the first one, you can use this with your colleagues, someone who is older than you or someone who you don’t know.

MORE FORMAL WAY – 안녕히 계십시오 (Romanised pronunciation : An-nyeong-hi – Gye-sip-si-o). Mostly used in TV shows or with your super boss, or with someone who you would want to show high level of respect.

These were the basic ways of saying goodbye but now we’ll look at some other ways of saying goodbye as well!

OTHER WAYS – Note : first one is informal and second one is formal ( after the / ) 

1) 잘 가/ 잘 가요 (Romanised pronunciation : Jal ga / jal ga-yo). It literally means “go well”. You can use this with your friends, someone younger to you. And also with your colleagues by just adding “요 ” which makes it polite.

2) 다음에 봐 / 다음에 봐요 (Romanised pronunciation : Da-eum-e bwa/ Da-eum-e bwa-yo). It means “see you next time”.

3). 내일 봐/ 내일 봐요 (Romanised pronunciation : Nae-il bwa/ Nae-il bwa-yo). It means “See you tomorrow.” For example : You could say this to a friend who you attend college with and will be seeing that person again the next day.

4). 가세요 (Romanised pronunciation : Ga-se-yo). It’s a polite way of saying “go”. Mostly used by older people for younger ones, maybe someone who they’re not close enough to speak informally to.

* The pronunciation and sounds of the formal ways of saying goodbye could sound a bit similar and there are often people who get confused but if you keep practicing and saying it over and over again, you’ll be able to distinguish between the two.

With this we end our lesson for today! How was it? Do comment down below if you have any doubts and we’ll try our best to cover it in our next lesson. I’ll see you all tomorrow with our next lesson. Till then, Happy Learning!