A Workplace Email (업무 이메일)

A workplace email to your manager is where two honorific systems have to run at once, on paper, with no intonation to soften anything. You must (1) speak to the reader in formal-polite 합니다체, and (2) raise the subject of your sentences whenever that subject is the manager — with the honorific -(으)시-, the subject particle 께서, and honorific nouns like 말씀. Meanwhile you must lower your own actions with the humble 드리다. Get the direction of respect backwards and the email reads as either cold or self-important. This page annotates a short, realistic email from an employee to her 부장 (department head).

The register is 합니다체 — the formal-polite level of memos, presentations, and emails up the hierarchy. It is one notch more formal than the 해요체 you would speak, and it is the natural written home of the subject honorific. Each sentence is annotated on its own; read the email straight through first, then dwell on the machinery.

The email, sentence by sentence

The 합니다체 greeting: 안녕하십니까 — 안녕하다 + honorific -(으)시- + the formal question ending -ㅂ니까. It is the written/formal cousin of the spoken 안녕하세요, and it is how emails and speeches open. 부장님 is the title 부장 ("department head") plus the honorific suffix -님; Koreans address superiors by title + 님, rarely by name alone. (More on the register at 합니다체.)

Self-identification in 합니다체: [team] + [name] + 입니다 (the formal copula). Korean business writing states your affiliation before your name — 마케팅팀 이서연 — locating you in the org chart first. No verb of "being from"; the copula 입니다 does all the work.

다름이 아니라 ("it is nothing other than…") is a fixed email opener that eases into the reason for writing. And notice 연락드립니다: 연락(을) 하다 ("to contact") becomes 연락(을) 드리다, the humble verb — you humbly give your contact to a superior. This is the first stroke of the whole email's logic: your actions go down, the manager's go up. (See the humble 드리다.)

The single most important sentence for English speakers. 요청하신 = 요청하다 ("to request") + the subject honorific -(으)시- in its attributive (relative-clause) form -신. The material was requested by the manager, so even buried inside the relative clause "the material [you] requested," the verb must carry -(으)시-. English never marks this: "the material you requested" honors nobody grammatically. Korean raises the manager's verb wherever it appears, including inside a modifier. (See -(으)시-.) Then your own actions stay humble/formal: 첨부하여 ("having attached," the formal literary form of 첨부해서) and 보내 드립니다 (humble "send").

When the manager is the subject, the honorific subject particle 께서 replaces plain 이/가: 부장님께서 ("the manager [subject, honored]"). It pairs naturally with the -(으)시- on the verb — 지시하신 ("[you] instructed"). Then the main clause swings back to your action, humbly formal: 수정했습니다 ("I revised"). -(으)ㄴ 대로 means "just as / in accordance with." (See 께서.) The single sentence performs the whole choreography: the manager's clause raised with 께서 + -시-, your clause lowered with a plain past.

More honorific-on-the-manager stacking, plus a sequence frame. -(으)ㄴ 후에 ("after doing") attaches to the past-attributive form, and because the reviewing is the manager's, it too takes -(으)시-: 확인하신 후에 ("after [you] review"). 회신해 주시면 = 회신하다 + benefactive 주다 + honorific -(으)시- + conditional -(으)면 ("if you would kindly reply"). The closer 감사하겠습니다 ("I would be grateful") uses the volitional -겠- as a softener — a set phrase of business email. (Note gamsahagetseumnida: 겠 before the consonant is read -get-.)

Three raisings of the manager in one line: 궁금하신 ("[that you] are curious about"), 있으시면 ("if [you] have"), and the honorific noun 말씀 — the elevated word for "words/speech" that you use for a superior's talking. 말씀해 주십시오 = 말씀하다 + benefactive 주다 + the formal command -(으)십시오 ("please [do]…"). -(으)십시오 is the 합니다체 imperative; its spoken cousin is -(으)세요. In a formal email up the hierarchy, -(으)십시오 is the register-consistent choice.

바쁘시겠지만 packs the honorific onto the manager's state: 바쁘다 ("to be busy") + -(으)시- (honoring you) + -겠- (conjecture, "must be") + -지만 ("although") → "although you must be busy." Then your request stays humble: 부탁드립니다. -까지 marks the deadline ("by Friday"). This "I know you're busy, but…" hedge is near-obligatory when imposing a deadline on a superior.

A formal sign-off using the same -(으)십시오 command, now as a well-wish: 보내십시오 ("please spend [a good day]"). The spoken version would be 좋은 하루 보내세요; the email keeps the formal -(으)십시오 to the end.

Formal thanks (감사하다) in 합니다체 — the standard email close.

The written signature. 드림 ("[humbly] giving") is the noun form of 드리다, the standard humble email sign-off from a lower to a higher party — the counterpart of English "Sincerely / Respectfully." A peer might write 올림 (even more deferential) or, downward, 씀. 드림 keeps your own name modestly lowered right to the last word.

What to notice

• The email raises the manager's verb everywhere it appears — main clause and relative clause: 요청하신 자료, 지시하신 대로, 확인하신 후에, 바쁘시겠지만. Track whose action it is, not which clause it sits in.
• 께서 is the honorific subject particle (부장님께서), pairing with -(으)시- on the verb.
• 드리다 lowers your own giving/doing (연락드립니다, 보내 드립니다, 부탁드립니다, 드림) — the humble mirror of the manager's raised verbs.
• 말씀 is the honorific noun for a superior's "words"; the register uses the formal command -(으)십시오 (말씀해 주십시오, 보내십시오), not the spoken -(으)세요.
• The whole thing is 합니다체: 안녕하십니까, 입니다, 습니다 — formal on every ending, top to bottom.

Common Mistakes

1. Dropping -(으)시- on the manager's action. The respected person's verb must carry -(으)시- even inside a relative clause, and their subject takes 께서, not 이/가.

2. Putting -(으)시- on your own action. -(으)시- raises someone else; you can't honor yourself. Lower your own action with 드리다 instead.

3. Slipping into 해요체 mid-email. A 합니다체 email should stay formal; the spoken -(으)세요 / -아/어요 endings read as too casual to a superior. Use the formal -(으)십시오.

4. Using the plain noun for the manager's words. A superior's speech is 말씀, not 말; the plain noun sounds careless in a respectful email.