KOREAN
I made a short guide about how to recognize formality levels in Korean.
JAPANESE
** Forms of address after the name:**
san - polite,
chan and kun - informal,
sama-superformal
Titles:
Senpai, sensei, fujin, Oniisan (お兄さん?) and oneesan (お姉さん?) meaning elder brother and elder sister, Otōsan and okaasan (father and mother if you speak formally). All those indicate polite level or formal level, not casual.
Verb endings that indicate formality
- 〜ます (-masu)**: Present/Future Affirmative (e.g., tabemasu - eat/will eat).
- 〜ません (-masen): Present/Future Negative (e.g., tabemasen - do not eat).
*〜ました (-mashita): Past Affirmative (e.g., tabemashita - ate). - 〜ませんでした (-masen deshita): Past Negative (e.g., tabemasen deshita - did not eat).
Sentence Ending
Sentence endings in です (desu): While not a verb ending, this polite copula is attached to nouns and adjectives to end sentences formally (e.g., hon desu - it is a book).
CHINESE
With Chinese it’s much more difficult, you have to rely on relationship hierarchy and the forms of address.
|Eldest Sister|大姐 (dajie) |
|Older Sister|姐姐 (jiejie) /~姐 jiě|
Elder Brother 哥哥 (gege) /~哥gē and 兄 xiong
Big brother Lao Ge
|Uncle|叔叔 Shushu|
|Aunt, Auntie, Aunty|阿姨 Ayi|
|Senior (Brother|Shixiong|
|Senior|前輩 qianbei|
|Junior (Brother|Shidi|
|Senior (Sister|Shijie|
|Junior (Sister|Shimei|
|Eldest Senior (Brother|Da-Shixiong|
|Laoshi|old teacher|
|Mr.|先生 (xiān sheng|
|Miss |■■ Xiaojie |
Old/Elder. Lao (老)
Master/teacher 師傅/师傅 Shifu
I know that “ni” means “you” informally