여보세요 (yeoboseyo)

여보세요 (yeoboseyo) is an interjection used to call the person on the other end of a phone line, and also to get the attention of someone standing nearby. It’s the very first thing an actor says the instant they put a phone to their ear in a Korean drama — that’s 여보세요. Memorizing it takes about three seconds. What makes it interesting, though, is that it has two stages. One is the invisible person on the other side of the phone; the other is the stranger standing two steps in front of you. Same word, but the temperature is completely different in those two settings. On the phone it’s about as polite an opening line as you can get, but said to someone right in front of you it can easily come off as picking a fight. Today we’ll look at that difference in temperature.

First, intonation. The 여보세요 you say when answering the phone drops slightly at the end — 「여보세요.」 It’s a signal meaning “I’ve picked up, go ahead.” Raise the ending instead — 「여보세요?」 — and it becomes a check. When the other person’s voice cuts out, or a few seconds of silence go by, Koreans repeat it two or three times: 「여보세요? 여보세요?」 At that point the word isn’t a greeting at all; it’s closer to “Can you hear me right now?”

This is exactly where learners most often go wrong. 여보세요 is not a greeting — it’s a word for calling someone. If 안녕하세요 (annyeonghaseyo) means “I’m asking after your well-being,” then 여보세요 means “Are you there? Is my voice reaching you?” That’s why 여보세요 can reappear well into a call that’s already been going for a while. It’s similar to the way English hello does double duty as both greeting and call — the difference is that in Korean the two have split into entirely separate words. Greet someone you’ve just met with 여보세요 and they’ll either laugh or look briefly confused.

Let’s also pin down the politeness level. 여보세요 contains -세요 (-seyo), which makes it polite speech all on its own. Someone you’re speaking to for the first time, a work call, the delivery driver, booking a doctor’s appointment — 여보세요 alone covers all of it. Calls from friends and family, on the other hand, are far more often answered with a single syllable instead: 「어」, 「응」, 「왜」. Answer your mom’s call with a deliberate 「여보세요?」 and you’re more likely to get 「너 왜 그래? (neo wae geurae?)」 — “What’s with you?” — in return. The name is already on the screen, so there’s nothing to confirm. 여보세요 is most natural in situations where the identity of the other person hasn’t been settled yet.

Checking it in the National Institute of Korean Language dictionary

The National Institute of Korean Language’s Basic Korean Dictionary lists 여보세요 as an interjection and splits the meaning in two.

여보세요 「Interjection」

A word used to call another person who is nearby. [en] hello; hi; hey there — An exclamation used to call another person who is nearby. [ja] もしもし — 近くにいる相手に呼びかけるときにいう語。 [es] ¡oiga!, ¡hola! — Interjección que se usa para llamar a una persona que está cerca. [zh] 喂 — 用于招呼离得较近的人。 — National Institute of Korean Language, Basic Korean Dictionary (krdict.korean.go.kr)

여보세요 「Interjection」 2. A word used to call the other person in a phone conversation. [en] hello — An exclamation used to call the other person on the phone. [ja] もしもし — 電話で話しかけるときに用いる語。 [es] ¡oiga!, ¡hola! — En llamada telefónica, interjección que se usa para llamar a otra persona. [zh] 喂 — 用于通話時招呼對方。 — National Institute of Korean Language, Basic Korean Dictionary (krdict.korean.go.kr)

What’s worth noticing is that sense 1 comes first. Long before the telephone existed, this was a word for calling someone standing right in front of you; the phone was a new stage that got attached later. Today the actual frequency of use runs in exactly the opposite direction, so learners pick up sense 2 first and only meet sense 1 later.

The dictionary doesn’t carry a Portuguese gloss, so the translation below is our own: alô; olá — usado para chamar alguém que está por perto, ou para chamar a outra pessoa ao telefone.

Let’s go through the real-use example sentences the dictionary provides alongside the entry, one by one.

여보세요. 무슨 일이야? — National Institute of Korean Language, Basic Korean Dictionary (krdict.korean.go.kr)

(yeoboseyo. museun iriya? / Hello. What’s up?) The call is answered with 여보세요 and then continues straight into 반말 (banmal), casual speech. In other words, 여보세요 is polite in itself, but it doesn’t bind the sentences that follow into polite speech. It’s proof that even between close friends, it’s common for only the first word to come out as 여보세요.

여보세요, 장학금을 신청하려고 하는데요. — National Institute of Korean Language, Basic Korean Dictionary (krdict.korean.go.kr)

(yeoboseyo, janghakgeumeul sincheonghharyeogo haneundeyo. / Hello, I’d like to apply for a scholarship.) This is the 여보세요 of the person placing the call. The situation is an inquiry call to a school or a government office, with the reason for calling coming right after 여보세요. It’s a good frame for learners to memorize whole: 「여보세요, ~하려고 하는데요.」

여보세요? 그러잖아도 너한테 전화하려고 했는데 마침 전화 잘 했다. — National Institute of Korean Language, Basic Korean Dictionary (krdict.korean.go.kr)

(yeoboseyo? geureojanhado neohante jeonhwaharyeogo haenneunde machim jeonhwa jal haetda. / Hello? I was just about to call you — good timing.) Here there’s a question mark. It’s the 여보세요 thrown out by someone answering who hasn’t yet identified the caller, and the moment they recognize the voice, they switch into warm, casual speech. It’s a great example of the temperature shifting dramatically inside a single exchange.

여보세요? 어디야? — National Institute of Korean Language, Basic Korean Dictionary (krdict.korean.go.kr)

(yeoboseyo? eodiya? / Hello? Where are you?) The shortest and most common form there is. Picture calling a friend who’s late for a meetup and it fits perfectly.

Seeing it in real conversation

Scene: Subway Line 2 on the way home from work. Emily has just seen the passenger sitting in front of her drop a wallet — and at that exact moment, Jun-kyung calls.

Jun-kyung: 여보세요? 너 지금 어디야? 한 시간째 안 오잖아. Hello? Where are you right now? You’re an hour late.

Emily: 지하철. 잠깐만 — (앞자리 승객에게) 여보세요, 지갑 떨어뜨리셨어요! On the subway. Hold on — Excuse me, you dropped your wallet!

Jun-kyung: 어? 뭐야, 나한테 한 말이야? 나 지갑 안 떨어뜨렸는데. Huh? What, were you talking to me? I didn’t drop my wallet.

Emily: 아니아니, 앞에 앉은 분. 주워 드렸어. No no, the person sitting in front of me. I picked it up for them.

Jun-kyung: 아 깜짝이야. 갑자기 조용해져서 끊긴 줄 알고 여보세요, 여보세요 했잖아. You startled me. It went quiet so I thought the call dropped and kept going “hello? hello?”

Emily: (웃음) 오늘 1분 만에 여보세요만 세 번 했네. (laughs) Three “yeoboseyo”s in one minute today.

This short exchange contains all three uses of 여보세요: the 여보세요 that calls the other party when answering a phone, the 여보세요 that calls a stranger standing right in front of you, and the 여보세요 that checks whether the sound has cut out.

Using it this way sounds off

✗ (Walking up to your department head’s desk at the office) 여보세요, 부장님. 이것 좀 봐 주세요. ✓ (Walking up to your department head’s desk at the office) 부장님, 잠시 시간 괜찮으세요? (“Sir, do you have a moment?”) → 여보세요 is a word for calling someone whose name and title you can’t use. Used on someone whose name you know, it effectively says “I don’t know who you are,” which makes it sound like you’re treating them as a stranger. With people you know, the rule is to address them by title or by an appropriate term of address.

✗ (To a staff member when the wrong food arrives) 여보세요, 이게 지금 말이 돼요? ✓ (To a staff member when the wrong food arrives) 저기요 (jeogiyo), 주문한 것과 다르게 나온 것 같아요. (“Excuse me, I think this isn’t what I ordered.”) → The grammar is perfectly fine, but the temperature is off. In face-to-face situations, 여보세요 in practice tends to show up right before someone starts making a complaint, so it lands in the listener’s ear as “All right, let’s see about this.” When calling a stranger at a restaurant, a shop, or on the street, the safe default isn’t 여보세요 — it’s 저기요.

Example sentences by situation

1) A call comes in from a number you don’t know. Since you don’t know who’s calling, you need a neutral, polite opening line.

여보세요? 네, 맞는데요. 어디시죠? (yeoboseyo? ne, mannneundeyo. eodisijyo? / Hello? Yes, that’s me. Who’s calling?)

In Korea, people tend not to state their own name first when answering an unknown number. They leave the door open with 여보세요 and check who the other person is first.

2) The sound cuts out mid-call. This happens daily the moment you step into an underground parking garage or an elevator.

여보세요? 여보세요? 잘 안 들려요. 제가 다시 걸게요. (yeoboseyo? yeoboseyo? jal an deullyeoyo. jega dasi geolgeyo. / Hello? Hello? I can’t hear you well. I’ll call you back.)

Here 여보세요 isn’t a greeting but a signal check. Repeating it twice is natural; past three times, people usually just hang up.

3) You can’t see anyone inside the shop. The door is open but the counter is empty, so you call out toward the back.

여보세요? 계세요? (yeoboseyo? gyeseyo? / Hello? Is anyone here?)

This is one of the few places where the dictionary’s sense 1 — the face-to-face call — comes back to life. Because the other person isn’t in sight, it doesn’t sound rude; in fact it’s the most natural choice. You could say the territory where 여보세요 has survived in face-to-face use has narrowed to exactly this: cases where the other person is out of sight or has their back turned.

Similar expressions in polite and casual speech

Expression	Tone & intensity	Where it’s used
여보세요 (yeoboseyo)	Polite and neutral	The default first word on the phone. Face to face, only when the other person is out of sight
여보세요? 여보세요? (yeoboseyo?)	Checking, slightly frustrated	When asking whether the sound has cut out
네, ○○입니다 (ne, ○○imnida)	Formal	Work calls. Settings where stating your name and department is the polite thing to do
어 / 응 (eo / eung)	Relaxed casual speech	Calls from friends and family, when the name is already on your screen
저기요 (jeogiyo)	Soft and neutral	The standard for calling a stranger face to face
실례합니다 (sillyehamnida)	Most polite	When speaking to someone older or senior whom you’re meeting for the first time

Scan the table vertically and one rule stands out. In the phone column, 여보세요 rules; in the face-to-face column, it has given up its seat to 저기요. Learners who remember just that one line are already halfway there.

Cultural background — when you can’t use someone’s name

A widely known explanation traces the root of 여보세요 to 「여기 보세요 (yeogi boseyo)」, “look over here.” The idea is that 여기(를) + 보세요 fused and contracted. 여보 (yeobo), what married couples call each other, is explained as coming from the same root. So the original picture behind this word isn’t a greeting — it’s a gesture. It’s the act of pulling someone’s gaze toward you, converted into sound. That’s also why the word transferred so cleanly to calling out to an unseen person on the other end of a phone line. For asking someone you can’t verify with your eyes “are you there?”, no word fit better.

One more thing: Korean is surprisingly short on words for addressing strangers. There’s no all-purpose form of address that works across the board like English excuse me or Japanese すみません, because the word you use branches according to age, status, and relationship. So when facing someone whose relationship to them hasn’t been established, Korean speakers always hesitate for a beat. 여보세요, 저기요, 실례합니다, 사장님 (sajangnim), 선생님 (seonsaengnim) — they’re instantly calculating which one to pick. The gradual retreat of 여보세요 from face-to-face use is a result of that calculation too. It was too direct, so the softer, more indirect 저기요 got chosen instead.

In dramas, this word also serves as a tool for compressing a situation. The staging where one side repeats 여보세요 during a phone scene while the camera cuts to the silent person on the other end is an old grammar of Korean drama. Without a line of dialogue, it shows both “the connection is broken” and “the other person can’t bring themselves to speak.” Conversely, when a character in a face-to-face scene says 여보세요 in a low voice to stop someone in their tracks, it’s a warning that the next line is a protest. Listen for these two uses separately while watching Korean dramas and you’ll quickly feel just how different an atmosphere the same three syllables can create.

Today’s quiz

At a café, the person walking ahead of you drops their scarf. What’s the natural way to call out and stop them from behind?

① 여보세요! ② 저기요! ③ 여보! ④ 네, 여보세요?

Answer: ②

The default for calling a stranger who’s right in front of you is 저기요 (jeogiyo). ① isn’t wrong — it does match the dictionary’s sense 1 — but in practice it risks sounding like the tone you take right before making a complaint. ③ 여보 (yeobo) is what spouses call each other, so using it on a stranger invites a serious misunderstanding. ④ is what you say when answering a phone. As a bonus, the line to add as you hand the scarf over is 「이거 떨어뜨리셨어요 (igeo tteoreotteurisyeosseoyo)」 — “You dropped this.”

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.