여쭙다 / 여쭈다: To Ask a Superior | Korean Grammar

You are in a professor's office, or your manager's, and you want to ask a question. In casual Korean you would 물어보다 — but aimed at someone above you, that verb is too flat. Korean has a dedicated humble verb for putting a question up to a superior: 여쭙다 / 여쭈다. It is the object-honorific twin of 뵙다: where 뵙다 humbles your act of seeing a superior, 여쭙다 humbles your act of asking one. Master this pair together and the whole logic of object honorification clicks into place.

Asking, humbled — not the listener, raised

The instinct English speakers bring is to make the question polite ("May I possibly ask..."). Korean instead makes the asker — you — small. 여쭙다 is a humble (겸양) verb: it lowers your own act of asking so that the person you ask sits above it. This is why you cannot get there by adding -(으)시-: -시- raises the subject, and the subject of "I ask" is you. Honoring yourself is exactly wrong. So, as with all object honorification, you switch the whole verb: 묻다 / 물어보다 → 여쭙다 / 여쭈다.

The person you ask is the goal of the question, and takes the honorific dative 께 (casual 한테 goes up to formal 께). Notice this is a different particle from 뵙다, where the person seen is a direct object (을/를): you ask a question to someone (께), but you see someone (을/를).

선생님, 하나만 여쭤봐도 될까요?

seonsaengnim, hanaman yeojjwobwado doelkkayo

Teacher, may I ask you just one thing?

궁금한 게 있어서 교수님께 여쭤봤어요.

gunggeumhan ge isseoseo gyosunimkke yeojjwobwasseoyo

I had a question, so I asked my professor.

💡

여쭙다 is for asking questions — seeking information. Asking a favor is a different verb: 부탁드리다. "May I ask you something?" (a question) = 뭐 좀 여쭤봐도 될까요?; "May I ask you a favor?" = 부탁 하나 드려도 될까요?

부탁 하나 드려도 될까요?

butak hana deuryeodo doelkkayo

Could I ask you a favor? (a request, so 드리다 — not 여쭙다)

The two stems: 여쭈다 and 여쭙-

Like 뵈다/뵙다, this verb has two standard shapes, and you need both.

여쭈다 is the vowel-stem form. It meets a following 어 and contracts 여쭈 + 어 → 여쭤:

Ending	Form	Reading
해요체 present	여쭤요	yeojjwoyo
past	여쭤봤어요	yeojjwobwasseoyo
보다 → "try asking"	여쭤보다	yeojjwoboda
ㄹ게요 (promise)	여쭤볼게요	yeojjwobolgeyo

여쭙- surfaces before certain consonant endings — most importantly the deferential 여쭙겠습니다 and 여쭙고. If you have wondered which of 여쭙다 and 여쭈다 is "correct," the answer is that both are: the National Institute of the Korean Language treats them as standard variants of one verb, and educated speakers use each. Practically, 여쭈다 gives you the smooth everyday conjugations (여쭤요, 여쭤봤어요) and 여쭙- gives you the formal set phrases, so most learners end up using both stems without ever choosing between them.

In practice, the form you will hear most is 여쭤보다 — 여쭈 plus the auxiliary -어 보다 ("try, give it a go"). Just as casual Korean softens a question with 물어보다 rather than bare 묻다, deferential Korean softens it with 여쭤보다 rather than bare 여쭈다.

뭐 좀 여쭙겠습니다.

mwo jom yeojjupgetseumnida

May I ask you something. (formal, opening a question)

이따가 부장님께 여쭤볼게요.

ittaga bujangnimkke yeojjwobolgeyo

I'll ask the manager about it later.

여쭤보고 싶은 게 있는데요.

yeojjwobogo sipeun ge inneundeyo

There's something I'd like to ask you.

Softening it: 좀 and the 여쭤봐도 될까요? frame

Even humbled, a bare question fired at a superior can feel abrupt, so Korean cushions it. The little particle 좀 ("just, a little") and the permission frame -아/어도 될까요? ("would it be alright if...?") turn 여쭙다 into a gentle request for the floor rather than a demand. Learn 뭐 좀 여쭤봐도 될까요? as a single high-frequency opener — it is the deferential equivalent of "Could I ask you something?"

뭐 하나만 좀 여쭤봐도 될까요?

mwo hanaman jom yeojjwobwado doelkkayo

Could I just ask you one small thing?

실례지만, 뭐 좀 여쭤볼게요.

sillyejiman, mwo jom yeojjwobolgeyo

Excuse me, let me ask you something.

💡

여쭤봐도 될까요? is a fixed, everywhere-you-go request frame. Memorize it whole; you will use it to open questions with professors, officials, and strangers alike.

The mirror image: when a superior asks you

Here is the move that keeps the whole system straight. 여쭙다 is only for you asking up. Reverse the direction — a superior asks you — and everything flips. Now the honored person is the subject (the one doing the asking), so you go back to plain 물어보다 and honor the subject with -(으)시-: 물어보시다 → 물어보셨어요.

교수님께서 저한테 뭐라고 물어보셨어요.

gyosunimkkeseo jeohante mworago mureobosyeosseoyo

The professor asked me something.

사장님께서 제 이름을 물어보셨어요.

sajangnimkkeseo je ireumeul mureobosyeosseoyo

The president asked my name.

Put the two directions side by side and the symmetry is exact: you → superior = humble the verb (여쭤봤어요, no -시-); superior → you = keep the plain verb, honor the subject (물어보셨어요, with -시-). Same event, opposite grammar, decided entirely by who is asking whom.

💡

Track the direction of the question. Up (you ask a superior) → 여쭙다/여쭈다, no -시-, person asked marked 께. Down (a superior asks you) → 물어보시다, with -시-, because the superior is now the subject. Get the direction and the grammar follows.

Common Mistakes

Mistake 1: Casual 물어보다 + 한테 with a superior. Aimed upward, the verb should go humble and the particle should climb to 께.

❌ 선생님한테 물어봤어요.

Too casual for a teacher — plain 물어보다 with 한테. Use 께 + 여쭤봤어요.

✅ 선생님께 여쭤봤어요.

seonsaengnimkke yeojjwobwasseoyo

I asked my teacher.

Mistake 2: Self-honorifying your own asking with -시-. Your asking is humbled, never raised — no -시- on your own act.

❌ 제가 선생님께 물어보세요.

Backwards — -시- honors the subject (you). Humble your own asking: 제가 여쭤볼게요.

✅ 제가 선생님께 여쭤볼게요.

jega seonsaengnimkke yeojjwobolgeyo

I'll ask the teacher.

Mistake 3: Marking the person asked with 을/를. A question is directed to someone — a goal, marked 께 — not a direct object.

❌ 선생님을 여쭤봤어요.

Wrong particle — you ask a question TO the teacher. Use 께: 선생님께 여쭤봤어요.

✅ 선생님께 여쭤봤어요.

seonsaengnimkke yeojjwobwasseoyo

I asked my teacher.

Mistake 4: Using 여쭙다 when the superior asks you. Humble 여쭙다 lowers your asking; a superior's asking is honored with 물어보시다 instead.

❌ 교수님께서 저한테 여쭤보셨어요.

Wrong direction — 여쭙다 humbles the asker, but here the professor is asking. Use 물어보셨어요.

✅ 교수님께서 저한테 물어보셨어요.

gyosunimkkeseo jeohante mureobosyeosseoyo

The professor asked me.

Key Takeaways

여쭙다 / 여쭈다 is the humble "ask (a question)" for a superior — an object-honorification verb, twin to 뵙다.
It works by verb suppletion, not -시-: you humble your own asking; -시- would wrongly honor the subject (you).
The person asked takes honorific 께 (the question's goal), not 을/를.
Two stems: 여쭈다 (여쭤요) and 여쭙- (여쭙겠습니다); the everyday form is 여쭤보다.
Mirror image: a superior asking you is 물어보시다 (plain verb + -시-), because the superior is now the subject.
여쭙다 is for questions; a favor is 부탁드리다.

Now practice Korean

Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.

Start learning Korean→