-으세요
-(으)세요: One Ending That Commands and Honours
Polite command — and, with a third-person subject, the honorific present tense.
How to form it
| When | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Stem ends in a vowel | -세요 | 가다 → 가세요 |
| Stem ends in a consonant | -으세요 | 읽다 → 읽으세요 |
| Stem ends in ㄹ | -세요 (ㄹ drops) | 만들다 → 만드세요 |
| Negative command | -지 마세요 | 가지 마세요 |
| Special honorific verbs | different word entirely | 먹다 → 드세요 · 자다 → 주무세요 |
-(으)세요 is one of the first endings you meet and one of the few that does two unrelated-looking jobs.
여기 앉으세요. — Please sit here. (a command)
선생님이 읽으세요. — The teacher is reading. (honorific present)
Same ending. What decides which is who the subject is.
Building it
Vowel → -세요
Consonant → -으세요
ㄹ → drop the ㄹ, then -세요
가다 → 가세요
읽다 → 읽으세요
만들다 → 만드세요 ← ㄹ drops
조심하다 → 조심하세요The ㄹ-drop matches -(스)ㅂ니다 and -(으)니까. It does not match -(으)ㄹ 수 있다, where the ㄹ stays. There is no way around learning these ending by ending.
Job one: the polite command
This is what you will use it for, constantly:
- 여기 앉으세요. — Please sit here.
- 조심하세요. — Be careful.
- 안녕히 가세요. — Goodbye. (literally: go peacefully)
- 잠시만 기다리세요. — Please wait a moment.
Negative: -지 마세요.
가지 마세요. — Please don’t go.
걱정하지 마세요. — Don’t worry.
It is genuinely polite. Shop staff, teachers and doctors use it all day, and nobody hears it as bossy. The rude version would be the bare stem — 가 — to someone you do not know well.
Job two: the honorific present
When the subject is a third person you are elevating, the same ending stops being a command and becomes a description.
선생님께서 읽으세요. — The teacher is reading.
아버지가 지금 오세요. — My father is coming now.
Nobody is being told to do anything. You are raising the person you are talking about.
This is -(으)시- underneath — 읽으시어요 contracted to 읽으세요 — and it usually brings 께서, the honorific subject particle, with it.
The test is the subject. Listener → command. Someone else → honorific description.
The verbs that change completely
A handful of common verbs do not take -(으)세요 at all. They have their own honorific words:
| Plain | Honorific | Polite command |
|---|---|---|
| 먹다 / 마시다 | 드시다 | 드세요 |
| 자다 | 주무시다 | 주무세요 |
| 있다 | 계시다 | 계세요 |
| 말하다 | 말씀하시다 | 말씀하세요 |
| 죽다 | 돌아가시다 | — |
먹으세요 is grammatical, but to an elder it lands noticeably low. 드세요 is what you say.
This is also why the two goodbyes split the way they do: 안녕히 가세요 for the one leaving, 안녕히 계세요 for the one staying — 계세요 from 계시다.
Not -(으)십시오
-(으)십시오 is the formal counterpart: announcements, signs, airline cabin crew, service scripts.
안전벨트를 매십시오. — Please fasten your seatbelt.
You will read it far more often than you will say it. -(으)세요 is the one for speaking.
Do not confuse it with
Taught alongside this
On the jabi learning path, this appears in 약을 먹은 후에 푹 쉬세요 (Rest well after taking medicine) — Beginner Korean 1, Unit 15, on the theme of health. These come with it:
Words used above
Quick check
No sign-up, no score saved — just see if it stuck.
1. What is 만들다 in this form?
2. You want to tell an elder to eat. Which is right?
3. Your teacher is reading. Which is the fullest honorific description?
Common questions
How do I know if it is a command or a description?
Look at the subject. If it is the listener, it is a command. If it is a third person you are elevating, it is the honorific present. 앉으세요 to someone's face is 'please sit'; 선생님이 읽으세요 is 'the teacher is reading'.
Is it rude to give commands at all?
No — -(으)세요 is polite. It is what shop staff, teachers and doctors use all day. What would be rude is the bare stem, 가, to someone you do not know well.
What is the difference from -(으)십시오?
-(으)십시오 is the formal version, used in announcements, signs and service speech. -(으)세요 is the everyday polite one you will actually speak.
Which verbs change completely?
먹다 → 드시다, 자다 → 주무시다, 있다 → 계시다, 말하다 → 말씀하시다, 죽다 → 돌아가시다. These are separate honorific verbs, not conjugations.
Seen in the wild
Lessons where this pattern showed up in real Korean — news, slang, drama lines.
Korean Politeness for Beginners: 해요체, 합니다체, and -시-
Korean at the Clinic and Pharmacy: 어디가 아파요 (Eodiga apayo)
Korean Counters: 개, 명, 마리, 잔, 권 (Gae, Myeong, Mari, Jan, Gwon)
Korean Greetings Beyond Hello: Phrases for Different Situations
How to Make Polite Requests in Korean: 주세요 and 주시겠어요
