A Text-Message Exchange (반말)

Textbooks teach you 해요체 and 합니다체, then send you out into a Korea where your friends text you in 반말 — the intimate 해체 speech level, all 요 stripped off. This is not slang and it is not rude: between close friends, classmates of the same age, and family, 반말 is simply the default. Reading a real chat thread is the fastest way to see how much Korean removes in casual speech — the 요, the case particles, whole subjects — and how much work intonation and chat orthography do instead.

The register throughout is 반말 (해체), appropriate here because the two texters are close friends of the same age who have long since "dropped the 요" with each other (a negotiated step called 말 놓기). Watch three things: endings that end bare in the vowel (해, 있어, 좋아), questions marked by nothing but a rising tone and a "?" (no -까), and consonant abbreviations like ㅇㅇ and ㅋㅋ. Each line is one text bubble; the sender alternates A and B.

The thread, bubble by bubble

The opener is pure 반말. 야 is the intimate attention-getter ("hey") — you would never say it to a stranger or a senior. 뭐 is "what," and 해? is the 반말 form of 하다: it is just the stem-plus-vowel 해 with nothing after it — no 요, no -니, no question word. What makes it a question is rising intonation alone (and, in text, the "?"). The very same 해 with a falling tone would be the statement "I'm doing [it]," and with a sharp fall, a command "do it." One form, three sentence types, sorted out entirely by tone — see casual 반말.

B answers with a bare 있어 — 있다 ("to be/exist") in 반말, again just stem + 어, no 요. Notice what survives and what vanishes: the location particle 에 stays (집에, "at home"), because dropping it would blur the meaning, but the subject "I" is gone entirely. 그냥 ("just, no special reason") is a texting staple — the verbal shrug of Korean chat.

A negative question in 반말. The long negation -지 않다 appears as 심심하지 않아? — 않아 is again the bare 반말 form (compare polite 않아요). Once more the question is carried by intonation, not by any interrogative ending. In 해요체 this would be 심심하지 않아요?; strip the 요 and you have the intimate version.

Now the chat orthography. ㅇㅇ is a consonant abbreviation of 응 ("yeah, uh-huh") — typing two ㅇ is faster than the full syllable and reads as a relaxed "yep." ㅋㅋ is laughter (the ㅋ standing in for a "k/kh" chuckle, like "haha"); more ㅋ means more laughter. 완전 literally means "complete(ly)" but in casual speech it is an intensifier, "totally/so." (These abbreviations have their own page: texting consonant abbreviations.) None of this belongs in polite writing — it is the visual signature of 반말 chat.

A packed, natural invitation. 그럼 = "then, in that case." 이따 = "later (today)." 밥 먹으러 shows two things: the object particle is dropped (밥[을] 먹다 — "eat food," with no 을), which is completely normal in casual speech, and 먹으러 is the purpose ending -(으)러 ("in order to eat") that attaches to a motion verb. Then 갈래? is the ending -(으)ㄹ래?, the intimate way to offer or suggest — "shall we go? / wanna go?" It proposes an action and invites the listener's will, which is exactly what you want for a casual plan. (See -(으)ㄹ래.)

좋아 is 좋다 ("to be good") in bare 반말 — "sounds good / okay." Then 먹을까? uses -(으)ㄹ까? ("shall we…? / what should we…?"), the intimate deliberative question. Here 뭐 먹을까 = "what shall we eat?" Note the pair: A offered with -(으)ㄹ래?, B now deliberates with -(으)ㄹ까? — two of the friendliest planning endings, both stripped of 요.

그 새로 생긴 국밥집 = "that newly-opened gukbap place" (생긴 is the past-attributive of 생기다, "come into being"). And 어때? is the go-to casual "how about it? / what do you think?" — the 반말 form of 어때요. It is one of the most useful three-syllable questions in the language for floating a suggestion.

오 is the interjection "oh." 거기 = "there." 가 보고 싶었어 stacks the "try doing" auxiliary 가 보다 ("go and see = try going") with 고 싶다 ("want to") in the past: 가 보고 싶었어, "wanted to try going." The final 었어 is, again, bare 반말 past — polite would be 싶었어요. The object/place particle on 거기 is dropped, as casual speech loves to do.

몇 시에 = "at what time" (몇 "how many," 시 "o'clock," 에 the time particle — which stays, like the location 에 earlier). 만날래? is -(으)ㄹ래? again, now negotiating the time. The pattern repeats because it is genuinely how friends settle plans.

일곱 시 = "seven o'clock" — and here is a live number fact: the hour uses native numbers (일곱, not the Sino 칠), even though the minutes would use Sino. 어때? floats the time as a suggestion once more. Notice the particle 에 is dropped here (일곱 시[에]) — in fast casual speech even the time 에 can go.

ㅇㅋ is another consonant abbreviation — this one for the borrowed "OK." 그때 = "then, at that time." And 보자 is the propositive -자 ("let's…"): 보자, "let's see (each other) = see you." -자 is the 반말 "let's," the intimate counterpart of 봅시다 (formal) or 보자 you would never say to a boss. (Propositive forms are on -읍시다 / -자.)

The sign-off. 응 is the full spelling of that "yeah" (the same word ㅇㅇ abbreviated earlier). 봐 is 보다 in bare 반말 — "see you," a clipped 봐(요). And ㅋㅋ closes the thread on a light note. From "야 뭐 해?" to "이따 봐 ㅋㅋ," not a single 요 appeared — that consistency is the register.

What to notice

• 반말 = 해요체 minus 요: 있어(요), 좋아(요), 심심해(요) all lose their 요. The consistency matters — one stray 요 mid-thread reads as a sudden cooling-off.
• Intonation does the work of question endings: 뭐 해?, 심심하지 않아?, 어때? are questions only by rising tone and "?", with no -까/-니 attached — see yes/no by intonation.
• Case particles drop freely: object 을/를 vanishes (밥 먹다) and even time 에 can go (일곱 시), while a load-bearing 에 (집에) tends to survive — see dropping the object particle.
• -(으)ㄹ래? offers, -자 proposes, -(으)ㄹ까? deliberates — the three friendly planning endings, all in bare 반말.
• Chat orthography (ㅇㅇ, ㅋㅋ, ㅇㅋ) is a whole visual layer of casual Korean; recognize it even if you write it out in full.

Common Mistakes

1. Sliding a 요 into a 반말 thread out of habit. Textbook reflex adds 요; among close friends it breaks the intimacy and can even read as cold or passive-aggressive.

2. Forcing a question ending where intonation already does the job. 반말 questions don't need -니 or -까; the bare form plus a rising tone is the question.

3. Reading the hour with a Sino number. Hours are native (한 시, 일곱 시); the Sino 칠 시 is wrong for "seven o'clock."

4. Using 반말 with someone who hasn't licensed it. The thread above works because the two are close friends of the same age. Dropping into 반말 with a stranger, a senior, or someone you've just met is a real social error, not a shortcut — the licensing rules are on when 반말 is licensed.