Korean Titles: Oppa, Unnie, -ssi, -nim
How Koreans address friends, coworkers, and strangers — kinship titles, name suffixes, and how to say 'you'.
In Korean you can only call someone by their bare given name if they are a close friend of the same age or younger. For everyone else a title is required, and choosing the right one is the first social skill Korean speakers expect of you. This is why Koreans ask your age so early in a conversation — without it they genuinely cannot decide what to call you, and getting it wrong is more conspicuous than a grammar mistake.
Titles also do the work that the word 'you' does in English. Korean has 당신, but in practice it appears mainly between spouses or during arguments, so using it as a neutral 'you' will sound wrong. Instead Korean repeats the title where English would use a pronoun: 선생님은 커피 좋아하세요? literally reads 'does teacher like coffee?' and means 'do you like coffee?'. This lesson covers the core kinship titles, the three suffixes 씨, 님, and 아/야, and the safe fallbacks for when you are unsure.
Name + 씨 (Polite Address)
Attach 씨 to the given name or full name of an adult you are not close to. Never attach it to the surname alone — 김 씨 sounds rude, not polite.
Titles Instead of 'You'
Korean avoids the pronoun 당신 in everyday speech. To say 'you', repeat the person's title or name as the subject of the sentence.
-아/야 (Calling Close Friends)
To call a close same-age or younger friend, add 아 after a name ending in a consonant and 야 after a name ending in a vowel. This pairs with intimate speech (반말) only.
Cultural & Language Note
Korean kinship titles are used far beyond actual family. A woman calls an older male friend 오빠 and a man calls him 형; the word depends on the speaker's gender, not just the listener's. This is why the same person can be 오빠 to one friend and 형 to another. Koreans ask your age early precisely because they cannot pick a title without it, and using no title at all reads as cold rather than neutral.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
씨 attaches to a given name or full name, never to a surname alone. 김 씨 is not polite — it lands somewhere between dismissive and rude, the opposite of what learners intend. Use 민수 씨 or 김민수 씨. The other frequent error is reaching for 당신 as 'you'; despite what dictionaries suggest, it appears mainly between spouses or in arguments, and Koreans repeat a title instead.