0
Profile Picture

문어체 or written style

2 years ago
2. 문어체 or written style
문어체 literally means "written-language style," in which you write formal documents,
articles, papers in classes, and so on. As there are polite and non-polite styles, we have
polite formal style and non-polite formal style. They both have - 다 at the end.
polite formal ending -- - ㅂ 니 다 / 습 니 다 non-polite formal ending -- - ㄴ 다 / 는 다 (present-tense verb) or - 다 (elsewhere)
Newspaper articles, academic papers, public announcement, and so forth, are written in
these styles. In fact, the non-polite is preferred in most written documents over the
polite, unless the document is by nature a dialogue (i.e. announcement) aiming at actual readers.
The non-polite formal, from a native speaker's intuition, gives the impression of self-addressing, which may explain why it is also used in diaries--something that can be most informal. The style is also used frequently by a speaker toward others in the same or younger age, as we saw in the chart above, and therefore we can call it 반말.