📈 Understanding Korean Proficiency Levels & TOPIK Alignment

Do you find Korean honorifics and passive verbs confusing?

This guide helps advanced learners understand how to combine respect and passivity in verbs—a crucial skill for formal writing, business communication, and advanced TOPIK exams.

📚 Table of Contents

• What Are Passive and Honorific Verbs?
• Key Passive and Honorific Forms
• Complex Sentence Examples
• Practice Dialogue: Formal Context
• Did You Know? Historical and Cultural Insights
• Final Thoughts

💡 What Are Passive and Honorific Verbs?

Passive verbs describe actions received by the subject, while honorific verbs show respect to the subject. In Korean, you often combine these two to maintain politeness and objectivity in formal settings.

Example: - Passive: 문이 열렸다 (The door was opened). - Honorific: 선생님께서 오셨어요 (The teacher came [respectfully stated]).

Advanced learners must master when to prioritize respect vs. neutrality and how to shift verb forms accordingly in multi-clause sentences.

📝 Key Passive and Honorific Forms

Passive verb markers:

• -이/히/리/기: 먹다 → 먹히다 (to be eaten)
• -되다: 결정하다 → 결정되다 (to be decided)

Honorific verb markers:

• -시-: 가다 → 가시다 (to go, honorific)
• Honorific verbs: 드시다 (to eat/drink), 주무시다 (to sleep), 계시다 (to be/stay)

Teacher’s Note: Combining them in one sentence requires attention to hierarchy: 예: 회의가 사장님께서 결정하셨다고 전해졌습니다. (It was conveyed that the meeting was decided by the president.)

💬 Complex Sentence Examples

1) Passive + Honorific Combination:

회의 일정이 사장님께서 조정하셨다고 공지되었습니다. It was announced that the schedule was adjusted by the president.

2) Passive in Formal Context:

그 결정은 위원회에서 합의되었다고 발표되었습니다. The decision was announced to have been agreed upon by the committee.

3) Honorific in Formal Statement:

교수님께서 논문을 직접 지도하셨다는 사실이 알려졌습니다. It became known that the professor personally supervised the thesis.

Tip: At this level, you must manage **multiple layers of respect and objectivity** within one sentence, especially in academic or corporate settings.

🗣 Practice Dialogue: Formal Context

Teacher: “Report this: ‘The report was reviewed by the director, and it was approved yesterday.’”

Student: 보고서가 이사님께서 검토하셨고 어제 승인되었다고 전해졌습니다.

Teacher: “Great! Can you make it more nuanced, indicating respect but also neutrality?”

Student: 보고서가 이사님께서 세심히 검토하셨으며 어제 공식적으로 승인되었다고 전달받았습니다.

🧩 Quick Check: Can you replace “승인되다” (to be approved) with “합의되다” (to be agreed upon) to practice another passive verb?

🌏 Did You Know? Historical and Cultural Insights

Korean honorifics date back to the Confucian hierarchy of the Joseon Dynasty, where speech levels reflected social rank. Interestingly, many passive forms (like -되다) became prominent in official documents to maintain humility and objectivity, especially when addressing royalty or senior officials. Today, this dual use remains essential in news reports and corporate communication, showing both **respect and neutrality** simultaneously.

📦 Final Thoughts

Understanding passive and honorific verbs at an advanced level allows you to craft nuanced Korean sentences suitable for academic writing, speeches, or workplace communication. Practice by rewriting neutral sentences into honorific or passive forms to see how the tone changes.

I hope that while reading various posts on my blog, you’ll learn Korean and grow to love Korea. As a Korean, I sincerely wish for that. Please come back anytime to discover new expressions and cultural insights!

🎓 Want to master passive and honorific verbs with real feedback? Book a 1:1 Korean class on italki and learn to balance respect and neutrality like a native speaker.

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