Grammar 1 (있다/계시다)
Let’s study in detail about the expressions we learned today.
‘One of the meanings of the verb ‘있다’ is “to exist/be somewhere”. While this form is used with objects, friends or people of a lower social status than us, for superiors, or people of a higher social status, the more formal ‘계시다’ is used. In other words, ‘계시다’ is the honorific of ‘있다’ .
Korean formal speech is very developed and has a lot of different forms to express different levels of formality. However, it will be enough to just use ‘계시다’ when the subject is a superior and ‘있다’ in all the other cases.
Take a look at the following examples.
있다/계시다
| More formal (계시다) | 아버지가 계세요. |
| 할머니가 계세요. | |
| 선생님이 계세요. |
| Less formal (있다) | 동생이 있어요. |
| 친구가 있어요. | |
| 꽃이 있어요. |
Did you understand them? If you didn’t, please ask more questions in the comment section down below. Moreover since it is good to know other examples, aside from those presented above, try to share yours through comments.
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