Want to know how to say “goodbye” in Korean? You’re in the right place! Here’s what you’ll learn in this post:
So, get ready to learn how to confidently end your Korean conversations and say goodbye in Korean so you can make a great impression with native speakers.
And if you want to learn more Korean words and phrases, try Drops!
For most goodbyes in Korean, there are two forms--one for when you’re the person leaving and another for when the other person is leaving. 안녕히 가세요 is one of the most common ways to say goodbye and it’s used when you’re staying, but the other person is leaving.
Before we go any further, let’s break this phrase down!
안녕 means “peace” in Korean. And by attaching 히, we turn it into an adverb (as a reminder, an adverb is a word that describes a verb). So, 안녕히 means “peacefully” and 가세요 means “please go”. Together, you’re literally saying 안녕히 가세요 “please go peacefully”.
This phrase is polite and works in most situations. There’s another similar phrase you’ll use when you’re the one leaving, so let’s get to it...
When you’re leaving and saying goodbye to someone who is staying, you’d use this phrase to mean something along the lines of “stay peacefully” or literally, “please peacefully exist”.
You already learned 안녕히, so let’s look at 계세요. This is the honorific form of 있으세요 (isseuseyo), which comes from the verb 있다 (itda, “to exist”).
As you’ve likely figured out by now, 가세요 (gaseyo) and 계세요 (gyeseyo) sound really similar, so new Korean learners often mix them up. But with time and practice, you’ll get the hang of these two useful phrases for saying Goodbye in Korean.
There’s another form of each of the first two Korean phrases for goodbye you learned, and they’re much more formal. So much more so that you’ll probably only hear them on tv, the radio or as you’re leaving a shop or restaurant and the staff is bidding you farewell.
안녕히 가십시오 (annyeonghi gasipsio) is the formal equivalent of 안녕히 가세요 and you’ll hear it when someone is wishing you to “go well” whereas 안녕히 계십시오 (annyeonghi gyesipsio) is used when someone means to say “stay well”.
A fourth polite way to say “goodbye” in Korean is the polite form of “go” in Korean, 가세요. It’s like saying “please go”. (The regular form of go is 가요.)
This particular expression is used by older speakers, typically when they’re saying goodbye to younger people.
Another expression to tell someone to “go” or “go well” in Korean is 잘 가요. You can only use it when the other person is leaving.
잘 means “well” in Korean, and as you learned before, 가요 means “go”.
There’s also an informal version of this expression, it’s 잘 가 (jal ga), which you can use with friends and family.
As with many of these expressions used to say “goodbye” in Korean, there are two versions--one for when you’re leaving and one for when you’re staying and the other person is leaving. And that’s where 잘 있어 comes in.
It’s the partner to 잘 가요. You use 잘 있어요 when you’re leaving and letting the other person know you wish them well. 있어요 is the casual form of 있다 (itda).
This Korean phrase for goodbye also has an informal version. It’s 잘 있어. And hopefully, you’re picking up on a pattern! Often, all you need to do to make an expression informal is drop the 요.
Let’s go back to the first two ways you learned to say “goodbye” in Korean. Remember the word for “peace” it’s 안녕 and you can use it as an informal or casual way to say “bye” in Korean. You can also use it to say “hello”, so it’s a handy word to know! Plus, it’s versatile. You can use it whether you’re the one staying or leaving.
Let’s learn a different kind of farewell in Korean--I’m sure you want to learn how to say more than just “goodbye”! To say “see you next time”, you can use 다음에 봐.
Can you guess how to make it formal? That’s right! You add 요 so it becomes 다음에 봐요.
This is another way to say “see you next time” or “see you later”. You can remove the 요 to make it more casual.
This slang expression for saying bye is onomatopoeic. It’s the sound of someone or something vanishing or disappearing. It’s typically used in text speech and meant to be cute.
If you’d like to tell someone to “take care” in Korean as you part ways, you can use this expression.
Want to tell someone that you’ll see them tomorrow? Use this phrase to say it.
And remember, you can remove the 요 to make this expression casual. But if you’d like to make it even more polite, you can change it to 내일 보세요 (boseyo).
Here’s another way to tell someone to “take care” in Korean.
A common expression for saying goodbye in Korean is “I’ll go first”. If you’re leaving, you can use this expression.
It’s usually used with friends and you’ll hear it often in K-dramas. To be more polite, you can also use 나 먼저 가요 (na meonjeo gayo) or 저 먼저 가볼게요 (jeo meonjeo kabulgeyo).
This expression means “enter well” in Korean and you use it to wish someone a good or safe journey back home, back to work, or back to most anywhere. The polite form of this expression is 잘 들어가세요 (jal deureogaseyo).
Want to tell someone to “get home safe” in Korean? Use the phrase 조심히 가세요 or its informal counterpart 조심히 가. 조심히 means “carefully”, so this expression literally means “carefully go”.
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