From earlier-ᄉᆞᆸᄂᆡ다(-seumnaeda) in the nineteenth century, contracted from-ᄉᆞᆸᄂᆞ이다(-seumnaida), used since the seventeenth century. The uncontracted form is still found as-습나이다(-seumnaida), now archaic.
Ultimately formed by a merger of the Middle Korean verbal suffixes-ᄉᆞᆸ〯- (Yale:-sǒp-, object honorific) +-ᄂᆞ〮- (Yale:-nó-, present tense marker) +-ᅌᅵ- (Yale:-ngì-, addressee honorific for questions) +-다〮 (Yale:-tá, declarative mood marker).
The allomorph-ㅂ니다(-mnida) after sonorants represents the fact that the Middle Korean object honorific-ᄉᆞᆸ〯- (Yale:-sǒp-) had the allomorph-ᅀᆞᆸ〯-(-zǒp-) after sonorants, which became simply-ㅂ-(-b-) after Middle Korean /z/ was (almost) unconditionally deleted in the sixteenth century.
| Romanizations | |
|---|---|
| Revised Romanization? | seumnida |
| Revised Romanization (translit.)? | seubnida |
| McCune–Reischauer? | ssŭmnida |
| Yale Romanization? | qsupnita |
-습니다• (-seumnida)