Numbers, counters, time and dates

Korean has two sets of numbers. Sino-Korean numbers (from Chinese) are built very regularly: 십 (sip) is 10, 이십 (isip) is “two ten”, 20, and 이십삼 (isipsam) is 23. Native Korean numbers have their own word for each ten and only go up to 99; above that, Sino-Korean is used.

Before a counter (a word such as “cups” or “people”), the native numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 and 20 take a short form: 하나 (hana) becomes 한 (han), 둘 (dul) 두 (du), 셋 (set) 세 (se), 넷 (net) 네 (ne) and 스물 (seumul) 스무 (seumu). So one cup is 한 잔 (han jan), and 21 cups 스물한 잔 (seumulhan jan).

Use Sino-Korean for money, phone numbers, minutes, dates, months and years, floors, and numbers such as bus lines, rooms and exits. Use native numbers for counting things and people, for age and for the hour on the clock. In phone numbers, 0 is 공 (gong).

Big numbers are counted in units of 10,000, 만 (man), not 1,000. So 50,000 is 오만 (oman), “five ten-thousands”, and 1,000,000 is 백만 (baengman), “a hundred ten-thousands”. The next unit is 억 (eok), 100 million. As with 백 and 천, “one” isn't said before 만: 10,000 won is just 만 원 (man won).

Watch the sound changes: 십육 (simnyuk, 16) and 십만 (simman, 100,000) are not said the way they are spelled.

When you count things, Korean adds a counter, a word for the kind of thing, as in English “two cups of coffee” or “three sheets of paper”. The order is noun, number, counter: 커피 두 잔 (keopi du jan), two coffees. Most counters take native numbers.

개 (gae) works for most objects when you don't know the right counter. To ask “how many?”, put 몇 (myeot) before the counter: 몇 개예요? (myeot gaeyeyo?), 몇 명이에요? (myeot myeongieyo?). Korean doesn't need a plural ending: 사과 세 개 (sagwa se gae) is “three apples”.

Clock time mixes both sets: the hour is native + 시 (si), the minutes are Sino-Korean + 분 (bun). So 3:15 is 세 시 십오 분 (se si sibo bun). Half past is 반 (ban): 일곱 시 반 (ilgop si ban), 7:30.

Add 오전 (ojeon, a.m.) or 오후 (ohu, p.m.) in front when needed, and 에 for “at”: 오후 세 시에 (ohu se sie), at 3 p.m. For a length of time, use 시간 (sigan, hour) with native numbers and 분 with Sino-Korean ones: 두 시간 삼십 분 (du sigan samsip bun), two and a half hours.

The days end in 요일 (yoil, day of the week), and each one is named after the sun, the moon or one of the five traditional elements. Around them you'll need 어제 (eoje, yesterday), 오늘 (oneul, today), 내일 (naeil, tomorrow) and 모레 (more, the day after tomorrow), 이번 주 (ibeon ju, this week), 다음 주 (daeum ju, next week) and 주말 (jumal, the weekend).

Months are simply Sino-Korean numbers + 월 (wol): 삼월 (samwol) is March. Two change their form: June is 유월 (yuwol), not 육월, and October is 시월 (siwol), not 십월.

Days of the month are Sino-Korean + 일 (il), and dates go from big to small: year, month, day. 이천이십오 년 오월 칠 일 (icheonisibo nyeon owol chil il) is 7 May 2025. To ask the date, say 몇 월 며칠이에요? (myeot wol myeochirieyo?), what's the date?