Korean Envelope Address Format: Rules, Examples and Audio

Key facts

• Addresses are written in Hangul for domestic mail. The official system today is the road-name address (도로명주소).

What you'll learn

• Write a full Korean address in the correct order.
• Choose 님, 귀하 or 귀중 after the recipient's name.
• Write a sender block and an apartment unit with 동 and 호.
• Read the numbers in an address aloud.

Before you start: you should read Hangul and know the Sino-Korean numbers, because road and room numbers use them. See Sino-Korean numbers if you need a refresher. Audio plays only when you press a button.

What Is the Korean Envelope Address Format?

The Korean envelope address format is the fixed way of writing where a letter goes and who sent it. It uses a road-name address, which names a road and a building number instead of a district and a plot number. A complete address has up to six layers, and each layer has a Korean label.

The sample address in the table is invented for practice and is not a real place. The postal code 12345 is also a sample.

The five-digit postal code replaced an older six-digit code in 2015. If you see six digits on an old form, the code is out of date.

The table gives the full layout. The next section explains why English speakers find the order surprising.

Why Do English Speakers Struggle with Korean Addresses?

English addresses run from small to large: a person, a house number and street, a city, a postal code and a country. Korean addresses run from large to small. You start at the biggest place and narrow down to the person.

The habit is the same as in Korean dates: 2026년 10월 9일 puts the year first. Both are large-to-small.

Two other differences surprise learners.

1. The name comes last and carries a title. An English envelope starts with "Mr. Kim". A Korean envelope ends with 김민수 님, where 님 is a respectful title.
2. The unit has counters. Apartments use 동 (building) and 호 (unit), written after the numbers: 101동 502호.

Pronunciation: 서울특별시 sounds like [서울특뼐씨]. The final ㄱ of 특 tenses the ㅂ, and the ㅅ after ㄹ is tense, so the word has two tense sounds. RR writes seoul-teukbyeolsi and does not show the tensing. Once the order is clear, each layer needs the right words.

What Order Does a Korean Address Follow?

A Korean address follows this order: postal code, 시/도, 구/군/시, road name, building number, details, name. Each unit is separated by a space. A side-street name is written attached to its road (배움로7길), and the building number follows after a space.

Take the sample address in parts.

• 서울특별시 (seoul-teukbyeolsi) is Seoul Special City. Big cities have names with 특별시 or 광역시 (metropolitan city), and provinces end in 도, such as 경기도 (gyeonggi-do).
• 마포구 (mapo-gu) is the district, a 구. Cities in a province are called 시, and rural districts 군.
• 배움로7길 5 (baeum-ro 7-gil 5) is the road, the side street and the number. 로 is a medium road, 대로 (daero) is a very wide road, and 길 (gil) is a small street. 배움로7길 is a side street numbered 7 that branches off Baeum-ro; the number shows its position along the main road. The number 5 is the building number.
• 푸른아파트 101동 502호 (pureun-apateu 101-dong 502-ho) is the building details.

Pronunciation: 배움로 sounds like [배움노], because ㅁ followed by ㄹ turns the ㄹ into ㄴ. Road names in addresses are romanized with a hyphen and without that change: Baeum-ro. The numbers are read with Sino-Korean words: 7길 is 칠 길 (chil gil) and 5 is 오 (o).

One more detail: the building number follows a pattern. Numbers rise along the road from its start, and odd numbers are on one side and even numbers on the other. Knowing this helps you guess where a house is, but you do not need it to write an address.

For more on reading addresses on signs and maps, see the lesson on Korean addresses and maps. The next section turns to the person who receives the letter.

How Do I Write the Recipient?

Write the recipient's full name followed by a title: 님 for a person, 귀하 for a formal letter and 귀중 for an organisation. The title replaces "Mr." and "Ms.", and it is not optional.

님 is the safe default. Add a role if it helps: 김민수 선생님 (seonsaengnim) is "teacher Kim Minsu", which already contains the respectful 님, so you do not add another. 귀하 means "your honour" and is common on formal documents. 귀중 is used after the name of a company or department, and it means "to the attention of".

A friend's envelope usually still takes 님, for example 박지영 님 (bakjiyeong nim).

The label for the block is 받는 사람 (banneun saram), pronounced [반는 사람]. The polite form is 받는 분. The label is often printed on the envelope. The sender needs the same care, as the next section shows.

How Do I Write the Sender?

Write the sender in the same order as the recipient, in a block labelled 보내는 사람, and place it in a corner. A sender block lets the post office return the letter and lets the recipient know who wrote.

The sender block has the postal code, the address and the name. The name does not take 님 because it is your own. You may add the title of your role, such as 학생 (haksaeng, student), but it is optional.

Sample sender block:

보내는 사람 (54321) 부산광역시 해운대구 햇살로3길 8, 202호 에밀리 스미스

The pieces: 부산광역시 (busan-gwangyeoksi) is Busan Metropolitan City, 해운대구 (haeundae-gu) is a district, 햇살로3길 8 (haetsal-ro 3-gil 8) is the road, and 202호 (202-ho) is the unit. Everything in this sample is invented.

Where does it go? Printed envelopes usually mark the boxes. On a plain envelope, a common layout puts the recipient in the middle or lower right in larger writing and the sender in the upper left in smaller writing, or on the back flap. Layouts differ, so follow the printed boxes when there are any.

The sender block is simple. Apartment addresses add one more layer, covered next.

What about Apartments?

An apartment address adds the building name, the building number with 동 and the unit number with 호, in that order. Many Koreans live in large apartment complexes (아파트) with several numbered buildings, so the unit details are essential. Without them the courier cannot find the door.

The pattern is: apartment name + building number + 동 + unit number + 호. For example, 푸른아파트 101동 502호 means "Pureun Apartments, building 101, unit 502". The unit number often shows the floor in its first digits: 502호 is usually on the fifth floor. This is a common pattern, not a rule.

Reading the numbers aloud:

• 101동 is read 백일 동 (baegil dong) and usually pronounced [배길똥]: the ㄱ of 백 moves into the next syllable, and the ㄷ of 동 is tense after ㄹ. In a romanized address the numeral stays: 101-dong.
• 502호 is 오백이 호 (obaegi ho), pronounced [오배기 호]. The number is read with Sino-Korean numbers.

A comma often separates the road address from the details: 배움로7길 5, 푸른아파트 101동 502호. Houses, shops and offices skip 동 and 호 and use a floor (층, cheung) or a room number: 3층 (samcheung, "third floor") or 302호.

With all the layers covered, a worked example puts them together.

Worked Example: 서울특별시 마포구 배움로7길 5

The task: address a letter to 김민수 at the sample address above, from Emily Smith in Busan. Build the recipient block in five steps.

1. Write the postal code. (12345), in brackets or on its own line. Check that it has five digits.
2. Write the city and district. 서울특별시 마포구. Leave one space between them.
3. Write the road and the building number. 배움로7길 5. The side street 7길 attaches to the road name with no space, and the building number follows after a space.
4. Add the building details. , 푸른아파트 101동 502호. Use a comma before the details.
5. Add the name and title. 김민수 님.

The finished envelope:

받는 사람 (12345) 서울특별시 마포구 배움로7길 5, 푸른아파트 101동 502호 김민수 님

보내는 사람 (54321) 부산광역시 해운대구 햇살로3길 8, 202호 에밀리 스미스

You will know it works when the address goes from large to small and the name comes last. The most common slip is writing the English order, with the name first and the city last.

If you mail a parcel with a courier (택배, taekbae), the label also asks for the recipient's phone number (전화번호, jeonhwabeonho), because the courier calls before delivery. Letters do not need a phone number.

The example shows the whole envelope. The next section covers the usual mistakes.

What Mistakes Do Learners Make with Korean Addresses?

Learners usually make six mistakes, and each has a quick repair.

1. Writing the English order. Learners often assume the name goes first. Actually, Korean goes from the largest place to the name. Fix: postal code, city, district, road, number, details, name.
2. Leaving out 님. A bare name on a personal envelope looks careless. Fix: add 님, or 귀하 on a formal letter.
3. Using 귀하 for a friend. Actually, 귀하 is official and stiff. Fix: 님 for friends and family.
4. Using an old lot-number address. Older addresses use a neighbourhood (동) and a plot number (번지), such as 합정동 123-4. The road-name system is now official, so use the road-name form.
5. Forgetting the unit. An apartment address without 동 and 호 cannot be delivered. Fix: always include the building and unit.
6. Misplacing spaces. Fix: write the side street attached to the road name and the building number after a space, as in 배움로7길 5. Numbers and counters are joined: 101동, 502호.

An honest limit: this lesson covers domestic mail in Hangul. For mail sent to Korea from abroad, the sending post office usually asks you to write the destination country in the language of the sender's country, and the address may be written in Latin letters. Check the post office's instructions, because rules differ by country and carrier. For maps, directions and place names, see the lesson on Korean addresses and maps.

Practice and Answers

Try the four items before you read the answers.

1. Put in order. Arrange: 김민수 님 / 마포구 / (12345) / 서울특별시 / 배움로7길 5.
2. Choose the title. Which title fits a letter to a company: 님 / 귀하 / 귀중?
3. Read aloud. How do you say 502호 in Korean?
4. Write your own. Write a recipient block and a sender block for an invented address, including an apartment unit.

Answer key

1. (12345) 서울특별시 마포구 배움로7길 5 김민수 님. The code, city, district, road and number come first, and the name comes last.
2. 귀중. Write the company name, then 귀중, as in 한빛상사 귀중.
3. 오백이 호 (obaegi ho). Sino-Korean numbers are used for unit numbers.
4. Answers vary. Check that the order is large to small, the unit uses 동 and 호, the recipient has 님, and the sender block has its own label.

A rule of thumb for checking your envelope: read the recipient block from top to bottom. If each line is smaller than the line before it, the order is right.

Where to Go Next

After this lesson you can write a recipient and sender block for a Korean envelope. This lesson covers the format and the road-name system, but not postal rates, registered mail or customs forms for international parcels.

1. Practise sending a note with the Korean language exchange message lesson.
2. Review the letter that goes inside the envelope in the Korean letter format lesson.
3. Learn the numbers used in addresses in Sino-Korean numbers.
4. Check the levels used for the 님 and 귀하 titles in Korean speech levels.
5. Return to how to write a letter in Korean to see every message lesson in the set.

With these steps, the Korean envelope address format becomes a large-to-small list that you can fill in layer by layer.

Audio, Review Status and Scope

Min-ji Park reviewed and signed off this page on 15 October 2026. Min-ji Park reviewed and signed off the Korean on this page on 15 October 2026. All addresses, names, postal codes and the apartment name are invented for practice.

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