오시다 (osida) — Put a Person in Front of '오다', and the Word Changes
오시다
오시다 (osida) is 오다 (oda) with the honorific -시- (-si-) attached — it means to come, said in a way that raises up the person who is doing the coming, when that person is an elder or someone you owe respect. The meaning itself isn’t one bit different from 오다. The direction is the same too. Only one thing changes: the distance between the person coming and the person speaking.
Learners usually meet this word for the first time at a shop door. Convenience store, gukbap place, hair salon — push the door open and almost without exception 어서 오세요 (eoseo oseyo) comes flying at you first. That’s the honorific form of 어서 와 (eoseo wa), which is to say, a conjugated form of 오시다. The second place you meet it is at home. The night before a holiday, or the day of a housewarming, phone calls in a Korean household mostly boil down to this one sentence — 몇 시에 오세요? (myeot sie oseyo?) The doorway and the home: these are the two places 오시다 shuttles between several times a day.
Korean honorifics split into three big branches. Words that raise the listener (-요 (-yo), -습니다 (-seumnida)); words that raise the subject of the sentence (-시- (-si-)); and words that swap out the vocabulary entirely (밥 (bap) → 진지 (jinji), 있다 (itda) → 계시다 (gyesida)). 오시다 belongs to the second branch. And here’s the thing you absolutely have to hold onto: what -시- raises is not the person listening in front of you, but the person who is coming.
That’s why a sentence like this works. 야, 우리 할머니 내일 오셔. (ya, uri halmeoni naeil osyeo.) The listener is a friend, so the ending is casual — but the person coming is Grandma, so -시- is attached. It looks mismatched, and yet it’s a perfectly natural sentence Koreans say dozens of times a day. Conversely, no matter how politely you speak, if the person coming is you, -시- can never attach. It would turn into raising yourself.
The forms you’ll see most often are about these:
- 오세요 (oseyo) — soft honorific. Used across suggestions, requests, and greetings.
- 오십니다 (osimnida) — formal style. Workplaces, public announcements, notices.
- 오셨어요 (osyeosseoyo) — past tense. Used after the person has arrived.
- 오실 거예요 (osil geoyeyo) — future, or conjecture.
- 오시는 분 (osineun bun) — modifier form. Common on signs, as in 「오시는 분은 이쪽으로 (osineun buneun ijjogeuro)」.
- 오시나요? (osinayo?) — a careful, tentative way of asking.
Seeing It in Real Conversation
The scene: the evening of a housewarming. Jun-kyung’s mother is due to arrive carrying containers of banchan, and the two of them are tidying up the entryway.
Jun-kyung: 신발 좀 한쪽으로 밀어놔. 엄마 곧 오셔. Push the shoes over to one side. My mom’s coming soon.
Emily: 몇 시에 오시는데? 나 앞치마는 벗어야 되나? What time is she coming? Should I take off my apron?
Jun-kyung: 일곱 시. 근데 우리 엄마 항상 삼십 분씩 일찍 오셔. Seven. But my mom always shows up thirty minutes early.
Emily: 야, 그럼 지금이잖아! 나 첫인상 망했다. Hey, that’s like now! There goes my first impression.
Jun-kyung: (초인종 소리) 어, 오셨나 보다. 문 좀 열어 줘. (doorbell) Oh, I think she’s here. Get the door, would you.
Emily: 나 뭐라고 인사해? 머리 하얘졌어. What do I even say? My mind just went blank.
Jun-kyung: 웃으면서 어서 오세요 하면 돼. 그거면 충분해. Just smile and say eoseo oseyo. That’s plenty.
Say It This Way and It Sounds Off
✗ (on the phone with your teacher) 제가 내일 학교로 오시겠습니다. ✓ (on the phone with your teacher) 제가 내일 학교로 가겠습니다. (jega naeil hakgyoro gagetseumnida.) → -시- is a marker for raising someone else, so it can’t be attached to yourself. Reaching for politeness and accidentally elevating your own self is the landmine learners step on most often. On top of that, when you are the one moving toward where the other person is, Korean normally uses 가다 (gada).
✗ (walking in holding a delivery box) 어, 택배가 오셨어요. ✓ (walking in holding a delivery box) 어, 택배 왔어요. (taekbae wasseoyo.) → -시- attaches only to people. Attach it to an object and you end up treating the box like an elder. This is exactly why 「손님 오셨어요 (sonnim osyeosseoyo)」 is right and 「택배가 오셨어요 (taekbaega osyeosseoyo)」 is wrong. These days you may hear things like 「커피 나오셨습니다 (keopi naosyeotseumnida)」 in shops, but that’s the textbook case of over-honorification that people call out.
Example Sentences by Situation
1. You pick up the phone at work and the person they’re asking for isn’t at their desk
부장님은 지금 외근 중이시고, 네 시쯤 오십니다. (bujangnimeun jigeum oegeun jungisigo, ne sijjeum osimnida.)
You have to raise the caller (-습니다) and raise the absent department head (-시-). Two honorifics layered into one sentence — classic business Korean. If you said 옵니다 (omnida) here, you’d be treating the department head like a rank-and-file employee, and the person on the other end would flinch.
2. An elder arrives for a holiday or a housewarming
할머니 오셨어요? 짐은 제가 들게요. (halmeoni osyeosseoyo? jimeun jega deulgeyo.)
This is very nearly the fixed greeting for the moment an elder opens the door and steps in. Notice that the second sentence has no -시-. The one carrying the bags is “me,” so it can’t be raised. That feel of the honorific switching on and then off within a single breath is the heart of 오시다.
3. Welcoming and sending off customers at a shop
손님, 이쪽으로 오세요. (sonnim, ijjogeuro oseyo.) / 다음에 또 오세요. (daeume tto oseyo.)
Korean service-industry speech effectively begins and ends with these two sentences. 오시다 is used unconditionally, even with customers who are younger than you. That’s because here -시- attaches not to age, but to the position of “customer.”
Related Expressions Across Formal and Casual Speech
| Expression | Temperature / Strength | Where It’s Used |
|---|---|---|
| 오다 (oda) | Neutral. No honorific | Friends, juniors, yourself. News articles and expository writing |
| 오시다 (osida) | Basic honorific | When the person coming is an elder, a customer, or a superior |
| 오세요 (oseyo) | Soft, warm honorific | Greeting customers, invitations, giving directions |
| 오십시오 (osipsio) | Stiff, formal honorific | Written notices, public announcements, official events |
| 왕림하다 (wangnimhada) | Very formal. Literary | Invitations and ceremonial greetings. Almost never in everyday conversation |
It’s one meaning split across five levels. What you’d say to a friend as 「내일 와 (naeil wa)」 becomes 「내일 오세요 (naeil oseyo)」 to your boss, and 「왕림하여 주십시오 (wangnimhayeo jusipsio)」 on a wedding invitation. For now, it’s enough for learners to firmly distinguish just three — 오다, 오시다, and 오세요 — and simply get used to seeing the rest.
Its partner in the opposite direction, 가시다 (gasida), is worth learning at the same time. When an elder moves toward you, it’s 오시다; when they move away from you, it’s 가시다. 조심히 가세요 (josimhi gaseyo) is the most common thing Koreans say when seeing a guest off.
Cultural Background — Honorifics Begin at the Door
오시다 is the stem 오- (o-), plus -시- (-si-) marking the honorific, plus the ending -다 (-da). The word formation itself is simple, but that one short syllable sets the temperature of the whole Korean sentence. In Korean, opening a door has always been a moment of confirming a relationship — because the words change depending on who is coming in.
Watch a historical drama and you’ll see this pushed to its extreme. When the king enters, 오시다 isn’t enough; an entirely different word takes over. In 「납시오 (napsio)」, the cry a retainer raises to announce him, the verb 납시다 (napsida) is an old word for a very high person coming forth. For one and the same movement, three layers existed: 오다 (oda) / 오시다 (osida) / 납시다 (napsida).
In modern dramas too, 오시다 works as a signpost telling you how characters are related. In a scene where a daughter-in-law announces her mother-in-law’s visit, or an employee reports the boss’s arrival, the line is almost without exception 오셨어요 (osyeosseoyo). Conversely, when a character on bad terms with someone deliberately tosses out 왔어? (wasseo?), that single word is enough to tell the audience the relationship has gone sideways. The subtitles render both as “She’s here,” but in the Korean original they are sentences of completely different temperature. Once you start hearing that difference, dramas get twice as fun.
One more thing. 오시다 follows position rather than order of age. A shop owner says 「어서 오세요」 even to a twenty-year-old customer, because the seat of “customer” is a high one. And conversely, no matter how close you are to someone, the moment their parents come up in conversation, -시- switches on. Korean honorifics attach not to the person, but to the seat that person is sitting in right now.
Today’s Quiz
Which of the following sentences is natural?
① (on the phone to your teacher) 제가 내일 학교로 오시겠습니다. ② (to a friend) 야, 우리 아버지 지금 오셔. ③ (to a customer) 주문하신 커피가 오셨습니다.
Answer: ②
In ①, the person coming is “I,” yet -시- is attached, raising yourself. 「제가 내일 가겠습니다 (jega naeil gagetseumnida)」 is the correct form. In ③, -시- has been attached to coffee, an object. 「주문하신 커피 나왔습니다 (jumunhasin keopi nawatseumnida)」 is the natural version. In ②, the listener is a friend so the ending is casual, but the person coming is your father, so -시- stays alive. Casual speech and honorifics coexisting in a single sentence — it’s the sentence that shows the character of 오시다 best.
Definitions and example sentences are from the National Institute of Korean Language’s Basic Korean Dictionary (krdict.korean.go.kr); that portion of this post, including our translations, is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 KR.