Korean greetings change with time of day and how close you are.
The fix isn’t memorizing ten synonyms—it’s knowing one polite line, one casual line, and when to switch.
Start at our Korean basics hub, drill the Korean polite phrases quiz, and read 안녕하세요.
For register rules, thank you / sorry and 80/20 Korean pair with this page.
Polite / neutral (strangers, service, elders)
Any time of day (safe default):
- 안녕하세요 (annyeonghaseyo) — “Hello” / general greeting.
Morning (common polite):
- 좋은 아침이에요 (joeun achim-ieyo) — “Good morning” (polite-ish; also 안녕하세요 works).
Evening / night (polite flavor):
- 안녕히 주무세요 (annyeonghi jumuseyo) — “Sleep well” / good night (to someone going to bed).
Leaving (you go, they stay):
- 안녕히 계세요 (annyeonghi gyeseyo) — “Stay well” / goodbye (polite).
They leave, you stay:
- 안녕히 가세요 (annyeonghi gaseyo) — “Go well” / goodbye (polite).
Casual (friends, peers you’re close to)
Hi / bye (very common):
- 안녕 (annyeong) — hi/bye among friends.
Morning:
- 좋은 아침 (joeun achim) — casual “morning.”
Good night (casual):
- 잘 자 (jal ja) — “Sleep well” (close relationships; tone matters).
What not to do
- Use 안녕 with a teacher or client you don’t know—안녕하세요 is safer.
- Assume English “good night” maps to one phrase—context (going to bed vs leaving a party) steers word choice.
Link with food & café
You’ve practiced 저기요 and 주문 in café Korean—greeting often comes before those lines in real life.
Particles note
If you’re working on 은/는 vs 이/가, see the beginner feeling guide—greetings often sit in simple 저는 … patterns early on.
StudyArcade
Six-card deck: polite hello, casual hello, polite goodbye (you leave), polite goodbye (they leave), good night polite, good night casual.
Rotate until automatic.
Ready to make studying fun? Download StudyArcade on the App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/app/studyarcade-study-games/id6759309341