Casual speech: 반말

반말 means casual or non-honorific speech. It is used with close friends of the same age, younger people, family members, or people you are very close to. It is not simply a shorter version of polite Korean. It also signals social distance, relationship, age, and hierarchy.

Up to now, you have mostly learned polite everyday Korean with endings like 요: 가요, 먹어요, 공부해요, 좋아요. In casual speech, this final 요 usually disappears: 가요 becomes 가, 먹어요 becomes 먹어, 공부해요 becomes 공부해, and 좋아요 becomes 좋아.

This does not mean you should use casual speech with everyone. If you use 반말 with a stranger, a professor, a doctor, an older person, or a coworker who has not invited it, it can sound rude. Korean politeness is not only grammar; it is part of the relationship.

The safest rule is simple: understand 반말 early because you will hear it in dramas, families, and friendly conversations, but use polite 요 forms until the relationship clearly allows casual speech.

The easiest way to form many casual present sentences is to start from the polite 요 form and remove 요. This works for many beginner forms you already know.

먹어요 becomes 먹어, 마셔요 becomes 마셔, 봐요 becomes 봐, 공부해요 becomes 공부해, and 기다려요 becomes 기다려. The sentence becomes shorter and more direct.

The meaning is still present, habitual, or near future depending on context. 나 학교에 가 can mean “I go to school” or “I’m going to school.” 나 밥 먹어 can mean “I eat” or “I’m eating.”

In casual speech, Koreans often use 나 for “I” instead of the polite 저. 저는 학교에 가요 becomes 나는 학교에 가 or simply 나 학교에 가. Between close friends, dropping particles is also common, but learners should first understand the full form.

For noun sentences, polite Korean uses 이에요 or 예요. Casual Korean uses 이야 or 야. This is the casual equivalent of saying “is / am / are” with a noun.

Use 이야 after a noun ending in a final consonant. Use 야 after a noun ending in a vowel. For example, 학생이에요 becomes 학생이야, and 친구예요 becomes 친구야.

This form is common when identifying people or things in casual speech: 내 친구야 means “He / she is my friend.” 학생이야 means “I’m a student” or “He / she is a student”, depending on context.

Be careful: 야 can also be a casual vocative particle used when calling someone, as in 민수야! meaning “Hey, Minsu!” But in this lesson, focus on 야 as the casual noun-ending after vowel-ending nouns.

For casual noun sentences, the negative form is 아니야, meaning “is not / am not / are not”. The polite form 아니에요 becomes casual 아니야.

For example, 학생이 아니에요 becomes 학생 아니야, meaning “not a student.” 내 가방이 아니야 means “It is not my bag.” In casual speech, particles are often dropped, so both 학생이 아니야 and 학생 아니야 are possible.

For verbs and adjectives, casual speech often uses 안 just like polite speech, but the verb ending becomes casual. 안 먹어요 becomes 안 먹어. 안 좋아요 becomes 안 좋아. 공부 안 해요 becomes 공부 안 해.

This makes casual negative forms easy to build if you already know polite negative forms. Keep 안, but remove 요 from the end.

Casual past tense is also formed by removing 요 from the polite past-tense ending. 갔어요 becomes 갔어, 먹었어요 becomes 먹었어, 공부했어요 becomes 공부했어, and 봤어요 becomes 봤어.

Casual questions often look exactly like casual statements in writing. The difference is intonation and the question mark. 먹었어 means “I ate.” 먹었어? means “Did you eat?”

A very common casual question is 뭐 했어?, meaning “What did you do?” Another common one is 밥 먹었어?, literally “Did you eat?”, but in Korean culture it can also function like a warm check-in: “Have you eaten?”

Again, casual speech is relationship-sensitive. 밥 먹었어? sounds friendly to a close friend or younger person, but to someone you should respect, use 밥 먹었어요? or a more honorific form.