As you know, there are different levels of politeness in Korean. We’re going to take a step further to explore the honorific polite. The honorific polite is politer than the standard polite. The standard polite ending is just 요. So the verb 사다 (to buy) in the standard polite is 사요. However, the honorific polite ending is (으)세요. So the verb 사다 in the honorific polite is 사세요. With a 하다 ending verb like 공부하다 it’ll be 공부하세요. Notice that the honorific polite ending also contains the 요, but has the extra 세 that the standard polite doesn’t have.

For ㄷ ending verbs like 듣다 (to hear) it’ll be 들으세요. Here you place the 으 in front of the 세 because of the ㄹ. It’s too hard to pronounce it as 들세요 and therefore the 으 facilitates an easier pronunciation of the word. Then for ㄹ ending verbs like 열다 (to open), it’ll be 여세요. The ㄹ in 열 is dropped and because there is no ㄹ, notice you don’t need an 으 placed in the word. With ㅂ ending verbs like 돕다 (to help) it’ll be 도우세요. The ㅂ in 돕 is dropped and 우 is placed before 세. All these verbs are conjugated in the present tense of the honorific polite. The honorific polite past tense is conjugated in a similar manner.

The honorific polite past tense will have an (으)쎴어요 ending. 듣다 will be 들으쎴어요. Notice that the ㄷ changes to a ㄹ and 으쎴어요 is added. 열다 will be 여쎴어요 and 돕다 will be 도우쎴어요. The honorific polite past tense of 공부하다 will be 공부하쎴어요 and 사다 will be 사쎴어요. Now what if I told you the present tense of the honorific polite of the verb 있다 (to have, to be present) is 있으세요. What would be the honorific polite past tense of 있다? It would 있으쎴어요. Just replace the 세요 in 있으세요 with 쎴어요 and you’ll get the honorific polite past tense ending.

So with the copula 이다 (to be) the honorific polite ending will be (이)세요. When the word attached to the copula ends in an consonant, it’ll have an 이세요 ending like 선생님이세요 (선생님 = teacher). When the word attached to the copula ends in a vowel, it’ll have a 세요 ending like 학교세요 (학교 = school). Knowing this, how wold you conjugate the honorific polite past tense endings? It’ll be 선생님이쎴어요 and 학교쎴어요. With 아니다 (to be not), the honorific polite ending will be 아니세요, but the honorific polite past ending will be 아니쎴어요.

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