๐ง How to Write a Korean Email or Formal Letter
Need to send a polite email to your Korean professor, coworker, or landlord? ๐ง
Korean formal emails and letters have a unique structure and tone. In this post, you'll learn how to write a professional and respectful message in Korean, whether it’s a short request or a detailed inquiry.
✉️ Korean Email Structure Overview
A formal Korean email or letter usually follows this order:
- Subject line
- Greeting (์ธ์ฌ๋ง)
- Self-introduction (if needed)
- Main content (์์ฒญ, ์ง๋ฌธ, ์ค๋ช ๋ฑ)
- Closing statement (๋ง๋ฌด๋ฆฌ ์ธ์ฌ)
- Signature (์ด๋ฆ, ์์ ๋ฑ)
1. Modern Email Greetings (์ธ์ฌ๋ง)
- ์๋
ํ์ธ์. OOํ ํ๊ธธ๋์
๋๋ค.
An-nyeong-ha-se-yo. OO-tim Hong Gil-dong-im-ni-da.
Hello, this is Hong Gil-dong from the OO team. - ๋ฐ์์ ์์ค์ ๋ฉ์ผ ๋๋ฆฌ๊ฒ ๋์ด ์ฃ์กํฉ๋๋ค.
Ba-ppeu-sin wa-jung-e mail deu-ri-ge doe-eo joe-song-ham-ni-da
Sorry to bother you during your busy schedule. - ํ์ธ ๋ถํ๋๋ฆฝ๋๋ค.
Hwa-gin bu-tak-deu-rip-ni-da
Please take a look. (commonly used after the opening)
2. Making a Polite Request (์์ฒญ)
- ์๋ฃ๋ฅผ ๊ณต์ ํด ์ฃผ์๋ฉด ๊ฐ์ฌํ๊ฒ ์ต๋๋ค.
Ja-ryo-reul gong-yu-hae ju-si-myeon gam-sa-ha-get-seum-ni-da
I would appreciate it if you could share the materials. - ์ผ์ ํ์ธ ํ ํ์ ๋ถํ๋๋ฆฝ๋๋ค.
Il-jeong hwa-gin hu hoe-sin bu-tak-deu-rip-ni-da
Please reply after checking your schedule.
3. Common Closings (๋ง๋ฌด๋ฆฌ ์ธ์ฌ)
- ์ฝ์ด ์ฃผ์
์ ๊ฐ์ฌํฉ๋๋ค.
Il-geo ju-syeo-seo gam-sa-ham-ni-da
Thank you for reading. - ์ข์ ํ๋ฃจ ๋ณด๋ด์๊ธธ ๋ฐ๋๋๋ค.
Jo-eun ha-ru bo-nae-si-gil ba-ram-ni-da
I hope you have a great day. - ๋ต๋ณ ๊ธฐ๋ค๋ฆฌ๊ฒ ์ต๋๋ค.
Dap-byeon gi-da-ri-ge-sseum-ni-da
I look forward to your reply.
4. Signature
- ํ๊ธธ๋ ๋๋ฆผ
Hong Gil-dong deu-rim
Respectfully, Hong Gil-dong (formal and humble closing) - ํ๊ธธ๋ (OOํ)
Hong Gil-dong (OO-tim)
Modern style with team name in parentheses
๐ก Did You Know?
In Korean culture, placeholder names like ํ๊ธธ๋, ์ฒ ์, and ์ํฌ are commonly used in textbooks and examples—similar to how English uses "John Doe" or "Jane Smith." The name ํ๊ธธ๋ originates from the 17th-century novel 『ํ๊ธธ๋์ 』, where he was portrayed as a heroic figure advocating for justice. Interestingly, after the release of Squid Game on Netflix, international viewers began recognizing the name '์ฒ ์' due to its use in the "Red Light, Green Light" game, highlighting how Korean naming patterns also reflect pop culture.
๐ฌ Practice with Me on italki!
Want to practice writing formal Korean messages with feedback?
You can book a personalized lesson with me on italki.
We’ll cover email writing, honorifics, and how to sound confident yet polite in different situations! ๐
๐ Final Thoughts
Keep learning, and soon you'll be writing like a native office worker! ๐
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