안녕히 가세요
an-nyeong-hi ga-se-yo · literally “Go in peace”
Situation: You've just paid at a café and are walking out. You want to say 'Goodbye' to the staff.
✕ What AI tells you
Translates 'Goodbye' as 안녕히 가세요 in every situation, including when you are the one leaving.
Why it fails: 안녕히 가세요 means 'Go in peace' — it's said to the person who is leaving. If you're walking out and say it to staff who are staying, you're telling them to leave.
✓ What Koreans actually say
Leaving? Say 안녕히 계세요 ('Stay in peace') to those who stay. Staying? Say 안녕히 가세요 to those who leave. If both of you are leaving, 안녕히 가세요 works for both.
안녕히 계세요.
an-nyeong-hi gye-se-yo
You're leaving a shop, office or someone's home
안녕히 가세요.
an-nyeong-hi ga-se-yo
You're staying and someone else is leaving — or you both head off in different directions
들어가세요.
deu-reo-ga-se-yo
Common, warm goodbye on the phone or when parting on the street with someone older
Cultural nuance, in depth
Korean goodbyes describe what the other person is about to do. 가세요 means 'go' and 계세요 is the honorific form of 'stay'. So the phrase changes depending on who is walking away. On the phone, where nobody is going anywhere, people often say 들어가세요 ('Go on in') or simply 네, 안녕히 계세요. With friends, both collapse into 안녕, 잘 가 or 들어가.
- #greetings
- #goodbye
- #misunderstood
More on daily life
- Daily Lifev0.1
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밥 먹었어요?
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