In English you can call almost anyone by their first name — your friend, your professor, your CEO — and adjust the respect through tone and surrounding words. Korean does not work that way. How you name a person to their face is itself a graded act of respect, and getting the height wrong is a real social misstep, not a minor stylistic slip. This page sorts out the three tools you will reach for most: 씨 on a name, 님 on a title, and 선생님, the Swiss-army address word for adults you have no title for.
The governing fact behind all of it: Korean almost never uses a bare given name except downward — to a child, a much younger person, or a close friend. So the English "Hey, John" at the office becomes 민수 씨 or 김 과장님, never bare 민수. Choosing which one is the whole skill.
씨 — polite-neutral, attached to a name
씨 attaches to a person's name — full name (김민수 씨) or given name (민수 씨) — and marks polite, level respect. It is the default for peers, colleagues, classmates, and people at a mild social distance where you are neither intimate nor looking up at them.
민수 씨, 이거 좀 도와줄 수 있어요?
minsu ssi, igeo jom dowajul su isseoyo
Minsu, could you help me with this for a sec?
김민수 씨 계세요?
gimminsu ssi gyeseyo
Is Mr. Kim Minsu here?
그럼 지영 씨가 발표를 맡아 주세요.
geureom jiyeong ssiga balpyoreul mata juseyo
Then Jiyoung, please take charge of the presentation. (colleague)
Two limits define 씨. First, it is not for a clear superior — calling your boss 민수 씨 sounds presumptuously flat, as if you had leveled the hierarchy. Second, and less obvious to learners: 씨 on a bare surname (김 씨, 이 씨) is not polite. It reads as curt and slightly demeaning — the way a landlord or a foreman might bark a laborer's family name. To use 씨 respectfully, attach it to a given name or a full name, never a lone surname.
님 — the deferential lift, attached to titles and roles
님 sits a clear notch above 씨. Its home is on titles and roles: 선생님 (teacher), 사장님 (boss/owner), 부장님 (department head), 교수님 (professor). This is how you address anyone above you in a workplace or institution — by their position plus 님, not by their name.
부장님, 잠깐 시간 괜찮으세요?
bujangnim, jamkkan sigan gwaenchaneuseyo
Sir, do you have a moment? (to your department head)
저기요, 사장님 어디 계세요?
jeogiyo, sajangnim eodi gyeseyo
Excuse me, where's the owner?
님 is also enormously productive in commercial and online life, where it attaches to role words to address customers and members with warmth-plus-deference: 고객님 (customer), 회원님 (member), and — the modern innovation — full names online and at service counters, 홍길동 님.
고객님, 이쪽으로 오시겠어요?
gogaengnim, ijjogeuro osigesseoyo
Sir/Madam, would you come this way?
홍길동 님, 주문하신 음료 나왔습니다.
honggildong nim, jumunhasin eumnyo nawatseumnida
Mr. Hong Gildong, your drink is ready.
Notice that 홍길동 님 (name + 님) belongs specifically to service, formal, and online registers. Between coworkers you would not call someone 홍길동 님 in casual speech — that is 씨 territory. 님 on a full name is the polished voice of a café, a bank app, a delivery notification.
선생님 — the all-purpose respectful address
선생님 literally means "teacher," and it does mean that. But its second life is far more useful: it is the default polite way to address an adult you have no other title for. A stranger you need to get the attention of, an older person whose job you don't know, a doctor, a counselor, someone at a desk — 선생님 respectfully covers them all when nothing more specific fits.
선생님, 이거 어떻게 하는지 잘 모르겠어요.
seonsaengnim, igeo eotteoke haneunji jal moreugesseoyo
Excuse me, I really don't know how to do this.
This is why 선생님 is such a lifesaver for learners: when you are unsure how to address a respectable adult, 선생님 is almost never wrong. It is safely deferential without presuming to know their rank or relationship. (Note that 저기요 — "excuse me / over here" — is the neutral way to flag a stranger before you have any address term at all, as in the 사장님 example above.)
Choosing the height: a quick map
Put the three together with the rest of the address system:
| Situation | Address | Register |
|---|---|---|
| Peer, colleague, mild distance | 민수 씨 / 김민수 씨 | polite-neutral |
| Superior with a known title | 부장님, 교수님, 사장님 | deferential (title + 님) |
| Customer / member | 고객님, 회원님, 홍길동 님 | service / formal / online |
| Respectable adult, no title known | 선생님 | all-purpose respectful |
| Close friend, junior, child | 민수야 / 민수 | intimate (bare name + 야/아) |
| Nameless adult stranger, distant | 댁 | cool, dated "you" |
For addressing people by kinship or job title (이모, 과장님, 기사님), see titles and kinship address; for how 님 behaves when it also carries the subject particle (선생님께서는), see 님 + 께서는; and for the humble first person that pairs with all of this, see 저 / 저희. The bare given name plus the vocative 야 (after a consonant, 아) — 민수야, 지영아 — is reserved for people you are genuinely close to or clearly senior to; using it on someone you have just met is a jarring over-familiarity. Korean naming conventions and why full names sound formal are covered in Korean names.
Common Mistakes
1. Calling your boss 씨. A superior with a title takes title + 님, never name + 씨.
❌ 민수 씨, 이 서류 좀 확인해 주세요.
Said to your 부장 — 씨 flattens the hierarchy. Use the title.
✅ 부장님, 이 서류 좀 확인해 주세요.
bujangnim, i seoryu jom hwaginhae juseyo
Sir, could you check this document?
2. 씨 on a bare surname. 김 씨 sounds curt and demeaning; attach 씨 to a given or full name.
❌ 김 씨, 여기 좀 앉으세요.
Surname + 씨 is brusque, near-rude. Use the given name.
✅ 민수 씨, 여기 좀 앉으세요.
minsu ssi, yeogi jom anjeuseyo
Minsu, please have a seat here.
3. 님 on a close peer. Over-deferential to a friend, it sounds cold or sarcastic.
❌ 민수 님, 우리 같이 갈래?
님 clashes with a friend and with banmal — pick one register.
✅ 민수야, 우리 같이 갈래?
minsuya, uri gachi gallae
Minsu, wanna go together?
4. Stacking 씨 onto a title. 씨 goes on names, not titles; a title already carries 님.
❌ 선생님 씨, 질문 있어요.
씨 can't attach to a title — 선생님 is already complete.
✅ 선생님, 질문 있어요.
seonsaengnim, jilmun isseoyo
Teacher, I have a question.
Key Takeaways
- 씨 = name + 씨, polite-neutral, for peers and colleagues — never for a clear superior, and never on a bare surname (김 씨 is curt).
- 님 = the deferential lift, on titles (부장님, 교수님) for superiors and on roles/full names (고객님, 홍길동 님) in service and online.
- 선생님 = the all-purpose respectful address for any adult you have no title for — the learner's safe default.
- Korean calibrates address by height: bare name (down) < 씨 (across) < 님 (up). The bare given name + 야/아 is intimate only.
- Mismatching the rung — 씨 to your boss, 님 to your friend — is the real error, so read the relationship before you choose the word.
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Start learning Korean→Related Topics
- Titles, Kinship & Fictive-Kin Address (부장님, 언니, 이모, 민수야)TOPIK 3 — How Koreans actually address each other day to day — by role and kin term, not by name — and why the right to call someone by their bare name is itself a measure of intimacy.
- N님 as Subject and 께서는: The Honorific TopicTOPIK 2 — Two composable building blocks — the suffix 님 turns a role or title into a respectful noun that takes honorific marking, and 께서 combines with the topic particle 는 to give 께서는, the honored-subject counterpart of 은/는.
- 저 / 저희: The Humble I and WeTOPIK 1 — 저 is the humble 'I' that replaces 나, and 저희 the humble 'we/our' that replaces 우리, in deferential speech — the key insight being that Korean has NO honorific 'you' pronoun (당신 is not polite 'you'), so deference runs by lowering yourself, not raising the listener.
- 댁: The Honorific Word for 집 (Home)TOPIK 2 — 댁 is the respectful word for a superior's house — and, by extension, a distant-polite way to say 'your household' or even 'you'.