Making a Restaurant Reservation (식당 예약)

Booking a table by phone is a compact grammar exam: you have to state an intention politely (-(으)려고 하다), float a request as a tentative possibility (-(으)ㄹ 수 있을까요?), understand the honorific nouns and counters that staff aim at you (성함, 몇 분), and read a benefactive request wrapped in the most deferential ending Korean has (-아/어 주시겠어요?). This page annotates a full call between a customer (손님) and a restaurant employee (직원).

The register is service Korean: the body runs on polite 해요체 (-아/어요), but the employee slides into formal 합니다체 (-습니다/-ㅂ니다) for the polished seams — 가능합니다, 드리겠습니다 — and into humble verbs (드리다) when doing things for the customer. The customer, meanwhile, honors the restaurant with soft, hedged requests. Watch one small but revealing asymmetry: the customer counts their own party with the plain counter 명, while the employee upgrades to the honorific counter 분 for the same people. Each turn is one line.

The call, turn by turn

Korean restaurants answer the phone by naming themselves in 합니다체: 식당입니다, the formal copula 이다 → 입니다. There is no "hello" here — the self-identification is the greeting. Note the pronunciation: 식당 ends in the ㅇ [ŋ] batchim and 입니다 begins with a vowel, so the two link (hence the hyphen in the reading, sikdang-imnida, so it is not misread with a hard g).

The customer opens with two workhorses. -(으)려고 하다 is the intention frame: 예약하려고 하다 = "to intend / be planning to reserve." It reports a plan you are set on, softer and more concrete than the bald future -겠-. (Full treatment at -(으)려고 하다.) Bolted on is the trailing -는데(요), which leaves the sentence open and cooperative — "I'm planning to reserve… [so, could you help?]" — instead of closing it with a blunt full stop. This open-door softness is the texture of every polite Korean phone call.

Here is the first honorific move toward the customer. To ask "how many people," the employee does not use the plain counter 명 — they use 분, the honorific counter for people, and even put the subject honorific -(으)시- on the copula: 분 + 이세요 → 분이세요. The whole question raises the guest. A friend counting friends would say 몇 명이야?; staff counting customers say 몇 분이세요? (More on the two people-counters at 명 vs 분.)

Two things at once. First, the number: 네 명, "four people." 네 is the native-Korean number 넷 in its pre-counter shape, and the counter 명 takes native numbers, never Sino ones — you would never say ×사 명. Second, the request frame: -(으)ㄹ 수 있다 ("to be able to / it's possible to"), here softened into a question with -을까요? So 예약할 수 있을까요? is not a flat "can I book?" but a tentative "would it be possible to book…?" — floating the request as a mere possibility to be granted. (See -(으)ㄹ 수 있다.) English collapses all of this into one word, "can"; Korean spreads it across an ability frame plus a hedging question ending.

The employee offers to act, humbly. 예약해 드릴까요 = 예약하다 + the benefactive -아/어 드리다 ("to do [something] for a respected person") + -(으)ㄹ까요? ("shall I?"). Because the booking benefits the customer, the employee lowers their own action with 드리다 rather than the neutral 주다. 시로 uses -(으)로 marking the time slot the reservation will be set to.

The hour is native again: 일곱 시, "seven o'clock" (일곱 = native seven; hours are always native — never ×칠 시). 자리가 있나요? uses the subject particle 가 on 자리 ("a table/seat") plus the gently inquisitive ending -나요?, which makes the question feel soft and unassuming rather than demanding. Note the reading of 있나요: the ㅆ batchim neutralizes and assimilates before ㄴ, so it is pronounced innayo.

Confirmation in formal 합니다체: 있습니다. The object particle on 자리 is dropped — extremely common in speech — and the employee returns to the crisp formal register for the factual answer. (The reading is itseumnida: the ㅆ becomes [t] before the consonant, and 습니다 nasalizes to -seumnida.)

부탁드리다 ("to make a humble request") is the polite workhorse for "please" when you are asking a favor of a service or a superior — literally "I offer [you] a request." It is built on the humble 드리다 again, but now spoken by the customer, lowering their own asking. 창가 자리로 uses -(으)로 ("in the form of / opting for") — "[make it] as a window seat." This is a smoother, more grown-up "please" than tacking 주세요 onto everything.

The most deferential request on the page. 성함 is the honorific word for "name" (the plain word is 이름) — staff ask a customer's 성함, never their 이름. (See 성함.) 연락처 is "contact (number)." And the ending -아/어 주시겠어요? stacks three layers of politeness on the verb 남기다 ("to leave"): the benefactive 주다 ("do for me"), the subject honorific -(으)시- (honoring you, the doer), and the tentative -겠어요? ("would you…?"). It is the top rung of the everyday request ladder — "would you be so kind as to leave…?"

The customer names themselves with the modest self-introduction frame -(이)라고 하다 ("[I] am called…"), in 합니다체 to match the formality of the call. Crucially, when giving your own name you use the plain word — you would never apply the honorific 성함 to yourself (see the mistakes below). This "I am called X" frame is a touch more formal and humble than a flat 저는 김하늘이에요.

The customer humbles their own action once more: 보내 드릴게요 = 보내다 + benefactive -아/어 드리다 + the intention ending -(으)ㄹ게요 ("I'll [do it], for you"). 문자로 uses -(으)로 in its "by means of" sense — by text. -(으)ㄹ게요 is the conversational, listener-oriented "I'll…," the same ending you would text a friend, sitting comfortably inside the polite call.

The pay-off of the counter asymmetry. The customer said 네 명 (their own party, plain counter); the employee now confirms 네 분 — the honorific counter — because from the staff's mouth the guests are honored people. Same four humans, two different counters, chosen by respect. The employee closes with humble-formal 예약해 드리겠습니다 (드리다 + the volitional -겠- + formal 습니다): "I will (humbly) make the reservation." (Note deurigetseumnida: 겠 before the consonant ending is read -get-, never -gess-.)

Formal thanks (감사하다) in 합니다체 — the register the transaction closes on.

A warm, humble sign-off: 뵙다 is the humble verb "to see/meet (a superior)," the lowered counterpart of 보다/만나다. With -겠습니다 it becomes "I will (humbly) see you" — the standard, gracious way for staff to end a booking.

What to notice

• -(으)려고 하다 states the customer's plan (예약하려고 하는데요); -(으)ㄹ 수 있을까요? floats a request as a tentative possibility. English's flat "I want to book / can I book?" hides both of these.
• The people-counter flips with respect: the customer says 네 명 of their own party, the employee says 몇 분 / 네 분 of the same guests. 명 and 분 both take native numbers (네, not ×사).
• Staff honor the customer with honorific nouns and endings: 성함 (not 이름), 몇 분이세요, and the top-of-the-ladder request -아/어 주시겠어요?
• 드리다 lowers the doer's own action toward the respected side — the employee's 예약해 드릴까요/드리겠습니다 and the customer's 보내 드릴게요.
• Register blends 해요체 and 합니다체: conversational in the body, formal at the seams (식당입니다, 있습니다, 드리겠습니다).

Common Mistakes

1. Counting people with Sino numbers. The counter 명 (and honorific 분) demands a native number in its short form; Sino numbers on people are simply impossible.

2. Using 명 for the guest when you are the one deferring. When staff (or anyone deferring to the listener) count people, they upgrade to the honorific counter 분.

3. Applying the honorific noun 성함 to yourself. 성함 honors someone else's name; giving your own, you use the plain 이름 (or just the -(이)라고 하다 frame).

4. Reading the hour with Sino numbers. The hour takes native numbers (한 시, 두 시… 일곱 시); Sino numbers appear only for the minutes.