When To Say ...합니다

[parakeetstreet7156]

...when do I use this expression '합니다'? Is it like used for greeting? I've seen it used for saying happy birthday. But I still don't get its concept.

[trutherous]

Hi "keets"

합니다 is a polite present tense form of the '하다'(to do) verb

It's a bit weird, but in the case of saying 'Happy Birthday?' 생일 축하 합니다 it translates literally something like this 생일(birthday) 축하(congratulation) 합니다(doing) e.g. 'I am congratulating you on your birthday'

A simpler example: 'I am woking' 일을 합니다 literally '(일)work (합니다)doing'

Some variants:
하십니다 - used with respect particle "시" to describe current continuing actions of a social superior -- never used to describe one's own actions
합니다 - polite present tense of 'doing'
한다 -informal present tense of 'doing'

[parakeetstreet7156]

Hi "keets"

합니다 is a polite form of the '하다'(to do) verb

Thanks for replying.
Could you give an example?

[trutherous]

I just added some examples -- and in the first response '하다' is a link so click on it and see more

[timandyou]

What great students guys~~~

George is very handy, isn't it!?
I do really appreciate him!

If you have further question, let me know, Keets.
cheers,


Tim

[joesp]

합니다 is the combination of 하다 + ㅂ니다 ending. To form the ending, remove the 다 ending to form the verb stem. To then combine 하 with ㅂ니다 you can obviously see that they collapse to form 합니다.

Korean doesn't have just verb tenses, like you would have with a romance language. To learn Korean verbs, you don't study tenses you primarily study how to combine the stem with various endings which have different meanings. Here, the meaning of ㅂ니다 is simple present tense and polite.

When do you use 합니다? You use it when you want to use the verb 하다 and make a polite sentence in the simple present tense.

하다 is the most popular verb in the Korean language because it is thrown on the end of (usually) a 2-character form. Here are some examples:

수영하다 to swim
공부하다 to study
연구하다 to do research
운전하다 to drive.

To make the polite simple present tense forms look like the following

수영합니다
공부합니다
연구합니다
운전합니다

you need to add the subject to the sentences to do say who is doing that thing.

[joesp]

somebody posted a blog entry http://blogs.koreanclass101.com/blog/20 ... -negative/ which explains the ㅂ니다 ending and another verb, 아니다 (to not be). You can also check that out.

[timandyou]

What a great explaination!
about "합니다"!

Thanks a lot Josep!
조셉님의 한국어 실력 정말 좋은데요...
정말 감사드립니다.

best,

Tim

[joesp]

감사합니다. I hope to contribute some good posts to the forum and help the poster. 정말 반갑고 ... 여러분들 ... 좋은 하루 되세요.

[timandyou]

제가 오히려 감사해요, 조셉씨.
또 만나요~~

[trutherous]

Hey guys

Yep really good info Joesp! A compound indeed.

The way it "used to be written" (the right way ) made the compound nature a lot clearer:

하겠읍니다 - will do, will be done
합니다 - doing
했읍니다 -did/done

I guess too many folks just couldn't carry over that ㅅ sound to the ㅇ -- but oh well,,, and when were they going to change that ㅂ before ㄴ to ㅁ?