Is there a Japanese equivalent of the Korean “seyo(세요)”?

12 comments

1. I don’t know Korean, but from what you’ve described, I’m not convinced that there would be a direct equivalent. Politeness in Japanese is largely a question of verb conjugation and verb choice.

2. In Japanese, you show politeness by changing the verb conjugation or even the verb root itself. I don’t know Korean to know if 세요 is the same concept. For most verbs, the normal polite ending is -ます. Eg.: 食べる becomes 食べます, the past form 食べた becomes 食べました, etc. For the copula verb, the verb itself changes from だ to です. For further levels of politeness or humbleness, it’s more complicated.

3. Correct me if I’m wrong, I’m also not super proficient in Japanese yet, but wouldn’t it be something in the likes of using masu-form instead of casual form?

   Or is it more like keigo-esque? Genuinely interested to know if someone has a good answer for it!

4. In that circumstance you would probably just use keigo 敬語 (formal speech). So instead of saying 食べる you’d say 食べます and always refer to the person you’re talking to by their last name + san. Never use あなた/君 or any slang terms or contractions.

5. it’s like ます or です. masu is the formal verb ending and desu is the formal copula – like to be in English.

   however Japanese speakers aren’t quite concerned by age as much as Koreans, and masu/desu doesn’t really imply that you have “respect” for them as much as it implies you don’t know them very well. There’s a level above that called keigo, which is essentially replacing verbs with humble or respectful ones. seyo in Korean is probably between the two levels in Japanese but closer to masu/desu.

   asking someone to do something nicely is covered by ください, which is usually translated in English as please, but is technically a keigo form meaning to give.

6. The more you learn Japanese the more you’ll realize the distinctions between Korean and Japanese are more political than linguistic.

7. Technically, the ,se‘ part of ,seyo‘ is a subject honorific, so it pays respect to whoever is the subject in the sentence (quite often the person asked to do something) and ,yo‘ is more about the person you are talking to (as opposed to about)
   I’m pretty sure the Japanese equivalent is sonkeigo verb patterns like o-VERB ni naru/desu or passive forms.

8. You’re not quite right on the use of 세요. It is not used as a formal/polite way to end a sentence, it is specifically used for the 2nd thing you mentioned: to ask/tell someone to do something. An equivalent for that in Japanese would be something like -てください.

   In Korean, to end a sentence politely you’d add 요, to end it formally you’d add -ㅂ니다 (i.e. 습니다). An equivalent for this in Japanese is です and でございます, respectively.

   I’m not a pro at either language, but I currently live in Korea and I lived in Japan for several years.

9. I have no knowledge of Korean, but it sounds to me like it also could compare in someways to 給ふ(たまう with the sound change) from kobun (古文). Can anyone else speak to this?

10. I think its the ます and です form. I’ve noticed that people drop the ます and です if they’re talking to same age or same rank but immediately add the ます and です forms once they talk to their boss.

11. Guys. It isn’t the equivalent of ます, that would be 요.
    세요 is the same as ください.

    Source: Korean/Japanese.

12. Rough translations and avoiding kanji for ease of reading:

    Casual: -やって/-って= 해
    Casual: -やってくれ/-ってくれ= 해줘/줘

    Polite: -やってください/-ってください= 해주세요/주세요

    More formal: ちょうだい replaces ください

    Very formal: keigo variance in verbiage can confuse even native speakers

    드세요 = めしあがってください／ちょうだい
    가리쳐주세요: おおしえください/ちょうだい

    And putting it in question format makes it sound more formal:

    おおしえいただけますでしょうか
    Kinda breaks into 가리침 받을수 있을까요