Counting the number is one of the most important parts of learning foreign languages. Let’s say you and your friend just landed at Incheon international airport. You need to buy a ticket for the train to get to downtown Seoul. So, you would go to the ticket counter and the ticket counter employee would ask you “How many tickets do you need?” How would you say ‘I want 2 tickets’ and how would you understand the employee saying ‘it is 4,000KRW total’?
Korean has two number systems.
(1) Sino-Korean
(2) Pure-Korean
Sino-Korean is the Korean pronunciation of Chinese words. And pure-Korean is literally pure Korean. Well, don’t be panicked. Think of ‘one/two/three’ and ‘first/second/third’. It is similar to it.
Please see the table below and read the name of each number in Korean. You can read them since you learned how to read Hangeul, can’t you?
Well then, when do we use each number system?
(1) Sino-Korean
Sino-Korean is for the general number or just the number itself. For example, “His uniform number is 8”, or “my phone number is 010–5544–7766”, or “her locker room number is 1”
— # of something (#번)
— money
— # of the floor (#층)
— measures (cm, miles, kg, …)
—year (년), month (월), date (일)
(2) Pure-Korean
On the other hand, when you count people, animals, or things, then you need to use pure-Korean with the proper counters.
Korean has a specific ‘counter’ for each noun like ‘a pair of shoes’, ‘two bottles of water’, ‘ten cartons of cigarettes’. There are a lot of counters in Korean, but for now, let’s start with ‘명 (for people)’, ‘마리 (for animals)’, and ‘개 (for things)’. You can replace almost any counters with ‘개’ if you don’t have any idea what counter you need to use. But, NEVER use ‘개’ for people or animals. And NEVER use ‘마리’ for people. It sounds insulting.
When you say ‘# noun’ or ‘# counter of noun’,
say in order of ‘noun + number + counter’.
— 친구/다섯/명 (5 friends)
— 강아지/여섯/마리 (6 dogs)
— 연필/열/개 (10 pencils)
— 신발/일곱/개 (7 pairs of shoes)
Here is one thing you need to keep in mind, exceptions!
하나, 둘, 셋, and 넷 change its name when being with a counter.
1. 하나 → 한
2. 둘 → 두
3. 셋 → 세
4. 넷 → 네
So if you want to say ‘친구 1명’, you need to say ‘친구 한 명’, not ‘친구 하나 명’.
— 친구/한/명 (1 friend)
— 강아지/두/마리 (2 dogs)
— 연필/세/개 (3 pencils)
Then, how do we count numbers after 10?
(1) Sino-Korean
It is super easy. It is like math.
16 is 10 + 6, so it is 십+육 = 십육.
37 is 3 x 10 + 7, so it is 삼 + 십 + 칠 = 삼십칠.
40 is 4 x 10, so it is 사 + 십 = 사십.
And as the number goes up more than 99, each number in the tens has its own name. 100 = 백, 1,000 = 천, 10,000 = 만.
129 is 100 + 2 x 10 + 9, so it is 백 + 이 + 십 + 구 = 백이십구.
805 is 8 x 100 + 5, so it is 팔 + 백 + 오 = 팔백오.
Easy, huh?
(2) Pure-Korean
Same as sino-Korean.
16 is 10 + 6, so it is 열 + 여섯 = 열여섯
How about 37? Now, you need to know one more thing.
20, 30, 40, … 90 has its own name.
But in general, we usually count numbers after 50 in sino-Korean. Just in case of speaking in a very formal way, then we count numbers in pure-Korean.
38 is 30 + 8, so it is 서른 + 여덟 = 서른여덟 (*여덟 sounds [여덜])
24 is 20 + 4, so it is 스물 + 넷 = 스물넷
(if you want to say 24 people, then it is 스물네+명)
65 is 60 + 5, so it is 예순+다섯 = 예순다섯, but it is more common to say 육십다섯 in a casual manner
158 is 100 + 50 + 8, which is 백 + 오십 + 팔= 백오십팔
Quiz, how do we count when taking a picture? One, two, three, and cheese!
하나, 둘, 셋, 김치! :)
Practice! Answer each question in Korean.
1) What is your phone number?
2) What date is it today?
We say the dates in order of ‘year’- ‘month’- ‘date’.
So, if today is 02/22/2020, it is ‘2020년 2월 22일’
3) How tall are you?
4) Read those numbers in Korean
— 49 people
— 30 cats (cat is 고양이)
— 300 pigs (pig is 돼지)
— 28 bags (bag is 가방)
What’s next: I am …
