Tell the reader exactly which part of the work is finished

A colleague writes 검토 완료: “Review complete.” Does that mean the document has been approved, sent to the client and published? The phrase establishes that the review is finished. Anything beyond that needs its own evidence.

This advanced lesson uses business Korean vocabulary to make project updates precise. You will distinguish planned, ongoing, completed and deferred work, name the task each status applies to, and turn a vague message into a short update with a useful next step. The examples concern a fictional team preparing a workshop announcement; they describe no real company policy.

You should already be comfortable reading connected sentences and formal -습니다 endings. For the structure of an email, use formal email in Korean. Here the challenge is the information inside the update: what has happened, what is still open, and what the reader is being asked to do.

As you read, draw a line under each task and circle its status. If a sentence sounds polished but you cannot tell which work it describes, revise that sentence before adding more formal vocabulary.

Learn status words with the task they describe

Keep the phrase intact when translating it. 초안 작성 완료 says that writing the draft is complete. The noun 초안 identifies the version, so calling it “the final document” would change the meaning. Likewise, 검토 진행 중 describes an ongoing review, not a decision to approve the document.

예정 points forward to what is planned or expected. It is not evidence that the action has already happened. 보류 indicates deferral; it does not automatically mean permanent cancellation, and it does not tell you when the work will resume. Add the relevant reason or next review point when you know it.

These words can appear as compact labels in a table, but a message to a colleague often needs a complete sentence. Build that sentence around the task: “The draft is finished,” “The review is in progress,” or “Dispatch is on hold.” The reader should not have to reconstruct the subject from yesterday’s conversation.

Turn a label into a sentence with a clear time reference

The English uses “we” because the examples belong to a team update. Korean can omit that subject when the writer and reader already understand who is responsible. If the owner matters or has changed, name the person or team. Omission is not a reason to leave responsibility ambiguous.

-고 있습니다 presents the review as ongoing. -(으)ㄹ 예정입니다 presents a future plan; 발송하다 becomes 발송할 예정입니다. 완료했습니다 reports completion of the stated task. 보류했습니다 reports the decision to put a task on hold. The last sentence therefore reports a completed decision to defer dispatch, while dispatch itself remains unfinished.

That distinction is easy to lose if you look only at tense. A past ending does not mean the overall project is complete. Read the verb and its object together: what, exactly, did the team complete, change or defer?

When preparing an update for later reading, replace relative expressions such as 내일 with a clear date where necessary. If the note is written on Thursday and forwarded on Monday, “tomorrow” can become misleading. Use the real date and the relevant time zone for a real cross-border project; the practice below keeps weekdays as fictional scenario details.

Separate the stages before summarising the whole project

Suppose the draft has been written, a colleague is reviewing the dates, and the team is waiting to send the announcement. “All done” would conceal two unfinished parts. A short but accurate update keeps the task boundaries visible.

Compare 초안은 완성됐지만 최종 검토는 아직 끝나지 않았습니다. — “The draft is complete, but the final review has not finished yet.” 은 and 는 help set the two parts against each other. 아직 and the negative ending make the unfinished work explicit.

You can also limit a completion claim with 만: 오늘은 제목만 수정했습니다. — “Today, I revised only the title.” Do not summarise that as “The announcement has been revised” if the reader would understand it to mean the whole text. The word 만 is small, but it limits the work covered by the claim.

If a document has passed a review, state the review result separately from sending or publication. “Review complete” does not establish a particular result unless the process defines one or the message supplies it. A useful status update allows the reader to distinguish the action taken from its outcome.

Add an owner, a deadline and a specific request

까지 gives the endpoint of the requested period: comments are needed by three. 에 places the planned check at three. Swapping them changes the timing. Do not translate both as “on Friday” when the precise deadline matters.

확인 부탁드립니다 is a useful polite request, but it can be too broad on its own. Does the reader need to check spelling, verify a date, choose between options, or approve a plan? 표시한 두 문장의 표현 names a specific part and task. The schedule example explicitly asks for a go-ahead instead of assuming that “please check” means “please approve.”

For a complete handoff, connect the request to the next action: 의견을 받으면 수정본을 공유하겠습니다. — “Once I receive the comments, I will share the revised version.” This is a conditional next step. It does not say that the comments have already arrived.

A deadline written by the sender is also not proof that the recipient has accepted it. When the timing needs agreement, ask 금요일까지 확인 가능하실까요? — “Would you be able to check it by Friday?” Then record the actual response. For choosing titles and respectful references, review who is being respected in a Korean sentence.

Read a short update about a workshop announcement

In this fictional project, the writing is finished but the event dates need one more check. Read the six sentences before opening the translation. List the finished task, the open question, the person handling it and the condition for sending.

Sentences 1–2: the completed work is drafting, and the unresolved information is the event dates. Contacting the responsible person is an action already taken. Receiving a reply is still pending. “Jimin has confirmed the dates” would therefore overstate the result.

Sentences 3–4: the team has made a decision to defer sending. Sharing the revised version is conditional on a Friday-morning reply. The text does not promise that the announcement will be sent to its audience at three; 공유, sharing the revised version, and 발송, sending the announcement, are separate actions here.

Sentences 5–6: the update explains what happens without a reply and gives reviewers a concrete request. The expression 그때까지 deserves attention: a reader could wonder whether it points to Friday morning or three in the afternoon. Before sending a real version, replace that reference with an explicit time. Try your own correction before reading the suggested revision below.

Remove an ambiguous reference without inventing a result

The fifth sentence is deliberately less precise than the other deadlines. A clearer version, if the intended cutoff is the end of Friday morning, is:

금요일 정오까지 답변이 없으면, 발송 일정을 다시 논의하겠습니다. — “If there is no reply by noon on Friday, we will discuss the sending schedule again.”

The correction names the time that was previously left to interpretation. It does not change “discuss again” into “cancel,” and it does not invent a new dispatch date. In an actual workplace, confirm the intended cutoff with the writer before making that substantive clarification.

For a compact summary of the update, use three statements: the draft is complete; date confirmation is pending; sending is on hold until that confirmation. Then add the comments deadline separately. This preserves the difference between progress information and a request addressed to reviewers.

Now imagine that Jimin receives a confirmed date. A revised update needs new evidence and new wording. You can replace “waiting for a reply” with the confirmed result, but you still cannot call the announcement sent until that separate action happens. Good revisions change only the claims that the new information actually supports.

Keep a small vocabulary notebook with a task beside each status: 초안 작성 + 완료, 날짜 + 확인 중, 발송 + 보류. Add one sentence about what remains unknown. This makes the vocabulary useful for reading real messages instead of turning it into another list of isolated translations.

Rewrite the update so another person can act on it

A small listening check

References and a three-line update to write

• Basic Korean Dictionary: 예정 — Planning or expecting future work.
• Basic Korean Dictionary: 완료 — Completion of the named task.
• Basic Korean Dictionary: 보류 — Deferring something rather than dealing with it immediately.

Reviewed September 3, 2026. Found a mistake? Send a correction.

Write an original three-line project update: one completed task, one unfinished task with its owner, and one requested next action with a clear time. Underline any condition that could change the plan. For more practice keeping the strength of a claim accurate, continue with claims, evidence and qualifications.