The 안내문 — the printed notice taped inside an elevator, posted at a building entrance, or slid under an apartment door — has a register as fixed as a legal form. It is institutional formal: humble toward the reader, impersonal about the rule, and built from a small set of frozen phrases you can learn once and recognise forever. This page annotates a complete elevator-out-of-service notice, because its five or six lines contain almost the entire toolkit: the humble opener 안내 말씀 드립니다, the formal causal -(으)로 인해, the agentless passive -되다, the polite request -아/어 주시기 바랍니다, and the prohibition 금지합니다.
The notice, line by line
안내 말씀 드립니다.
annae malsseum deurimnida
We would like to make an announcement. (lit. we humbly give notice-words)
The universal opener of Korean notices. 말씀 is itself an honorific/humble noun for "words/speech," and 드리다 is the humble verb "to give (to a respected party)" — so 말씀 드립니다 literally means "[I] humbly offer words." The whole phrase lowers the speaker before the reader, a deferential bow that sets the register. You will see it, verbatim, at the top of announcements everywhere. (See the humble 드리다.)
시설 공사로 인해 승강기 이용이 일시 제한됩니다.
siseol gongsaro inhae seungganggi iyong-i ilsi jehandoemnida
Due to facility construction, elevator use is temporarily restricted.
Two register signatures at once. First, the formal causal -(으)로 인해 ("due to / owing to"): 공사로 인해 = "owing to construction." This is a Sino-flavoured, written "because," reserved for formal cause — quite different in tone from the everyday 때문에 or the connective -아서/어서. Second, the agentless passive 제한됩니다 ("is restricted"): 제한하다 ("to restrict") becomes passive 제한되다, so the notice states the rule without naming who restricts it. This is the heart of notice-Korean — rules are presented as facts of the world, not as one party imposing on another. 승강기 (昇降機) = "elevator," 일시 (一時) = "temporarily."
공사 기간은 7월 1일부터 7월 3일까지입니다.
gongsa giganeun chirwol irilbuteo chirwol samilkkajiimnida
The construction period is from July 1 to July 3.
The date range uses the frame 부터 … 까지입니다 ("is from … to …"): 1일부터 3일까지 ("from the 1st to the 3rd"), closed with the copula 입니다. Dates are Sino-Korean (칠월 = "July," 일일/삼일 = "1st/3rd day"). 기간 (期間) = "period." Note that the range particles attach to nouns and the whole thing is finished off with the formal copula — a very common notice pattern for stating any span (times, dates, floors).
공사 구간은 지하 주차장 승강기입니다.
gongsa guganeun jiha juchajang seungganggiimnida
The construction zone is the basement parking-lot elevator.
Another N은 … 입니다 identifying line — the notice pins down exactly which elevator. 구간 (區間, "section/zone"), 지하 주차장 (地下駐車場, "underground parking lot"). Institutional prose leans on these bare copula sentences to lay out facts cleanly.
이용에 불편을 드려 대단히 죄송합니다.
iyong-e bulpyeoneul deuryeo daedanhi joesonghamnida
We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience to your use (of the facility).
The apology line, and again it runs on 드리다: 불편을 드려 ("having given [you] inconvenience," humble) + 죄송합니다 ("we are sorry," the formal 죄송하다). 대단히 ("greatly / very much") is the formal intensifier of apologies — warmer registers would use 정말/너무, but notices reach for 대단히. The connective -어 (드려) means "in that we…/for…," linking the cause of the apology to the apology.
계단을 이용해 주시기 바랍니다.
gyedaneul iyonghae jusigi baramnida
Please use the stairs.
The core request pattern of institutional Korean: -아/어 주시기 바랍니다. Break it down: 이용하다 ("to use") → 이용해 주다 (benefactive "do [it] for [us]") → honorific 주시- (raising the reader) → nominaliser -기 → 바라다 ("to ask/hope"). The stack literally reads "we ask that you kindly do us the favor of using [the stairs]." It is the politest, most impersonal way to issue an instruction — far softer than the direct imperative 이용하세요.
긴급 상황 발생 시 관리사무소로 연락해 주시기 바랍니다.
gingeup sanghwang balsaeng si gwallisamusoro yeollakae jusigi baramnida
In the event of an emergency, please contact the management office.
Here is the terse Sino-Korean conditional N (발생) 시 ("in the event of / upon ~"): 발생 시 = "at the time of occurrence," 시 (時) being a bound noun "time/occasion" that replaces a whole -(으)면 clause in official prose. 긴급 상황 (緊急狀況, "emergency"), 관리사무소 (管理事務所, "management office"), 연락하다 ("to contact"). The request frame -아/어 주시기 바랍니다 returns.
관계자 외 출입을 금지합니다.
gwangyeja oe churibeul geumjihamnida
Entry is prohibited except for authorized personnel.
The prohibition line, built on the Sino-Korean 하다-noun 금지 (禁止, "prohibition"): 출입을 금지합니다 ("[we] prohibit entry"). 관계자 (關係者, "concerned/authorized person") 외 ("besides / except," the Sino-Korean 外) = "except authorized personnel." Formal signs also use the passive 금지됩니다 ("is prohibited") or the sterner imperative 출입을 금하십시오 — but 금지합니다 is the standard middle register.
여러분의 양해를 부탁드립니다.
yeoreobunui yanghaereul butakdeurimnida
We ask for your understanding.
The closing courtesy: 양해 (諒解, "understanding/indulgence") 를 부탁드립니다 — 부탁하다 ("to request") in its humble form 부탁드리다. 드리다 appears one last time, lowering the speaker as the notice signs off. 여러분의 = "your (all of you)," the polite plural address.
감사합니다.
gamsahamnida
Thank you.
The formal 감사하다 in 합니다체 — the register the notice began and ends in.
What to notice
- The register opens and closes with the humble 드리다 (안내 말씀 드립니다, 부탁드립니다) — the speaker bows to the reader.
- Cause is stated with the formal -(으)로 인해 (공사로 인해), not the colloquial 때문에 or connective -아서.
- Rules are stated with the agentless passive -되다 (이용이 제한됩니다) — no one is named as doing the restricting.
- Instructions use -아/어 주시기 바랍니다 (이용해 주시기 바랍니다); prohibitions use the 하다-noun 금지합니다.
- Terse Sino-Korean devices carry the official tone: N 시 ("in the event of"), N 외 ("except"), and 부터…까지입니다 ranges.
Common Mistakes
1. Using colloquial 때문에 or -아서 where the notice takes -(으)로 인해. In formal notices, cause is expressed with the Sino-flavoured -(으)로 인해; 때문에 and 공사해서 read as spoken, not institutional.
❌ 공사 때문에 승강기 이용이 제한됩니다.
Too colloquial for a notice — formal signs use 공사로 인해, not 때문에.
✅ 시설 공사로 인해 승강기 이용이 제한됩니다.
siseol gongsaro inhae seungganggi iyong-i jehandoemnida
Due to facility construction, elevator use is restricted.
2. Making the rule active and personal. 저희가 이용을 제한합니다 ("we restrict use") names an agent the register wants hidden; use the agentless passive 이용이 제한됩니다.
❌ 저희가 승강기 이용을 제한합니다.
Wrong voice — a notice states the rule impersonally with the passive 제한됩니다, not the active 'we restrict.'
✅ 승강기 이용이 일시 제한됩니다.
seungganggi iyong-i ilsi jehandoemnida
Elevator use is temporarily restricted.
3. Issuing the instruction as a bare imperative. 계단을 이용하세요 is fine spoken, but a posted notice softens the command into -아/어 주시기 바랍니다.
❌ 계단을 이용하세요.
Too direct for a printed notice — institutional register asks with 이용해 주시기 바랍니다.
✅ 계단을 이용해 주시기 바랍니다.
gyedaneul iyonghae jusigi baramnida
Please use the stairs.
4. Using 때 instead of the Sino-Korean 시 in the fixed formula. The official "in the event of ~" formula is N 시 (발생 시); 발생할 때 is grammatical but colloquial and breaks the register of a notice.
❌ 긴급 상황이 발생할 때 연락해 주세요.
Register mismatch — official notices use the terse 발생 시 (…), not the conversational 발생할 때 (…) 주세요.
✅ 긴급 상황 발생 시 관리사무소로 연락해 주시기 바랍니다.
gingeup sanghwang balsaeng si gwallisamusoro yeollakae jusigi baramnida
In the event of an emergency, please contact the management office.
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- Official & Report Style: -(으)ㅁ, 요망, 바람TOPIK 5 — The nominal-ending register of Korean official documents, reports, notices, and minutes — clauses that end in -(으)ㅁ or the bureaucratic 요망 / 바람 instead of a finite verb.
- The 되다 Passive: N이/가 되다, N하다 → N되다TOPIK 2 — 되다 is the light-verb passive that partners Sino-Korean action nouns and the huge N하다 verb class: swap 하다 → 되다 to get 'be/get X-ed' — 사용하다 → 사용되다 'be used', 시작하다 → 시작되다 'begin'. It's the passive escape hatch for the thousands of 하다-verbs that have no fused suffix passive.
- 드리다: To Give (Humble) — vs 주다 and 주시다TOPIK 2 — 드리다 is the humble 'give' you use when YOU give something to a superior — the third point of Korean's give-system alongside 주다 (give to an equal/junior) and 주시다 (a superior gives to you), because Korean picks the verb by the social direction of the transfer, not just the act.
- A Formal Announcement (공지사항)TOPIK 5 — A line-by-line read of a service maintenance 공지사항 in fully deferential 합니다체 — showing the honorific dative 께, the prospective -(으)ㄹ 예정이다, the agentless passive -되다 (중단되다, 제한되다), the formal courtesy connective -오니, and the humble set phrases 안내 말씀 드리다 and 공지드리다.
- A Weather Forecast (일기 예보)TOPIK 4 — A broadcast weather forecast in the polished 합니다체 forecasting register, annotated clause by clause — the predictive -겠- that means 'is forecast to' (not 'I will'), the impersonal passive -(으)로 예상되다, the scope phrase 을 중심으로, and the courteous advisory -(으)시기 바랍니다.