발주서

Think of a 발주서 (Purchase Order) as the ultimate professional shopping list. When a business needs to buy supplies, they don't just send a text message; they use this formal document to make sure everyone is on the same page.

It acts as a legal agreement. By sending it, the buyer is saying, 'I promise to pay this amount for these specific items.' It protects both the buyer and the seller from misunderstandings about prices or quantities.

The word 발주서 comes from the Hanja characters: 발 (發 - send/issue), 주 (注 - order/request), and 서 (書 - document). Historically, as trade grew more complex, merchants needed a way to track orders without relying on verbal promises.

In the past, these were handwritten ledgers. Today, they are almost exclusively digital, but the core purpose remains the same: creating a paper trail for inventory and accounting.

You will mostly hear this in business settings. Common phrases include '발주서를 발행하다' (to issue a PO) or '발주서를 승인하다' (to approve a PO).

It is strictly a formal term. You wouldn't use this when ordering a pizza for friends, but you would definitely use it when ordering 500 boxes of pizza dough for a restaurant chain.

While 발주서 is a technical noun, it appears in many business idioms. 1. 발주를 넣다: To place an order. 2. 발주가 취소되다: The order was cancelled. 3. 발주를 검토하다: To review the order. 4. 발주를 요청하다: To request an order. 5. 발주서가 누락되다: The PO was missed/forgotten.

In Korean, 발주서 is a compound noun. It functions as a singular entity. Pronunciation is straightforward: [bal-ju-seo].

There are no plural forms in Korean grammar for this word, as the context usually implies the number of documents. It is often used with particles like -를 (object marker) or -가 (subject marker).