An Official / Institutional Email (공식 이메일)

There is workplace email, and then there is 공문 — the fully formal institutional email an organization sends to someone it does not know well: a candidate, an applicant, a member of the public. This register sits one clear step above the everyday office email covered in workplace email. It is uniformly 합니다체, it addresses the reader as 귀하 ("esteemed recipient"), it frames the writer's purpose with the written-formal -고자 하다, and it humbles almost every verb the writer performs with 드리다.

This example — an HR team inviting a candidate to an interview — is a compact tour of that machinery. Read it line by line and you can write any formal Korean email: an inquiry, a request, an official reply. The throughline is deference expressed structurally, not just with polite endings: the writer's actions are lowered (연락드리다, 안내해 드리다), the reader's actions are raised with -(으)시- (확인하시기, 있으시면), and requests are softened into -(으)시기 바랍니다.

The email, line by line

The email opens on the most formal greeting, 안녕하십니까 — the 합니다체 greeting that sets a 공문 apart from a casual 안녕하세요 from the first word. (On this level, see 합니다체.)

The self-identification: organizations introduce themselves by name + department + copula 입니다, not by a personal "I." 인사팀 ("HR/personnel team") 입니다 = "[this] is the HR team." Note 주식회사 is pronounced [주시쾨사] — the ㄱ of 식 aspirates with the ㅎ of 회 — which the romanization jusikoesa reflects.

The pivot of the page. 다름이 아니라 ("it's nothing other than… / to get to the point") is the frozen opener that signals the email's business is coming. Then two things happen at once. -고자 하다 is the written-formal "in order to" — 안내해 드리고자 = "in order to (humbly) inform." It is the bookish cousin of the spoken -(으)려고, and it pairs naturally with a humble main verb: here the purpose (안내해 드리고자) leads into 연락드립니다 ("we contact [you], humbly"). The reader is addressed as 귀하 + the honorific dative 께. (On the humble verb, see 드리다.)

The reader's action is raised: 합격하신 것 uses the subject honorific -(으)시- on 합격하다 ("to pass") — "the fact that [you, esteemed] passed." And the writer's own act of congratulating is humbled: 축하하다 → 축하드리다 ("to congratulate, humbly"). Every clause tilts respect the same way — reader up, writer down.

아래와 같이 ("as below / as follows") is the formal pointer to attached details. The predicate is the agentless passive 진행되다 ("to be conducted," from 진행하다) plus the prospective -(으)ㄹ 예정이다 ("is scheduled to") — 진행될 예정입니다. As in a public notice, no actor is named; the interview simply is scheduled.

Two formal moves. 첨부된 is a passive attributive: 첨부되다 ("to be attached," from 첨부하다) → 첨부된 파일 = "the attached file." And the request is the deferential -(으)시기 바랍니다 — 확인하시기 바랍니다 = "we ask that you kindly check," stacking the honorific -(으)시- onto the nominalizer -기 + 바라다 ("to hope/ask"). This is the 공문 way to say "please do X," far softer than a bare command 확인하세요.

어려우실 경우 = "in the case that [it] is difficult [for you]" — the ㅂ-irregular adjective 어렵다 takes the honorific -(으)시- (어려우시다) plus the formal conditional -(으)ㄹ 경우 ("in the event that"). The request stacks the benefactive 주다 with the honorific and 바라다: 회신해 주시기 바랍니다 ("please kindly reply for us").

있으시면 raises the reader's having of questions — 있다 + honorific -(으)시- + conditional -(으)면 = "if [you] have." 언제든지 ("anytime at all") and 편하게 ("comfortably, freely") warm the tone without dropping the formality. The email invites contact with the same deferential 주시기 바랍니다.

귀하의 ("your," the possessive of 귀하) + 많은 관심 ("great interest"), and the humble 감사드리다 (감사하다 → 감사드리다, "to thank, humbly") closes the body. The frozen honorific 귀하 and the humble 드리다 bookend the writer-down / reader-up posture.

A warm closing wish. 있기를 바라다 ("to hope that there will be…") nominalizes 있다 with -기 and marks it with 를 as the object of 바라다 — "[we] hope for a good result." A gracious sign-off before the formal thanks.

Formal thanks in 합니다체 — the standard close of a 공문.

The sign-off 드림 ("[respectfully] given, from…") is the humble written closer — the letter-writing counterpart of 드리다. An organization signs 부서명 + 드림; an individual writing formally signs 이름 + 드림 or the even more formal 올림.

What to notice

• The email holds a single 합니다체 · 공문 register and expresses deference structurally: reader's actions raised with -(으)시- (합격하신, 어려우실, 있으시면), writer's actions lowered with 드리다 (연락드리다, 축하드리다, 감사드리다).
• -고자 하다 is the written-formal "in order to," pairing with a humble main verb (안내해 드리고자 연락드립니다); its spoken cousin is -(으)려고.
• 귀하 is the frozen honorific "you" of correspondence; -(으)시기 바랍니다 is the deferential request that replaces a bare command.
• 첨부된 shows the passive attributive (첨부되다 → 첨부된); -(으)ㄹ 경우 and the agentless passive 진행되다 carry the same formal-notice flavor as an official announcement.

Common Mistakes

1. Using spoken -(으)려고(요) instead of the written -고자 (하다). The conversational purpose form breaks the 공문 register.

2. Using plain 하다/해요 where the humble 드리다 is required. Toward an esteemed reader the writer humbles the verb.

3. Issuing a bare command (-(으)세요) instead of the deferential request. A 공문 softens instructions into -(으)시기 바랍니다.

4. Writing 당신 for "you" instead of 귀하. 당신 is not a neutral "you"; in formal correspondence the reader is 귀하.