2 · Numbers, counters and time
Money: 원, 만 and 얼마예요
prices and large sums
Prices are Sino-Korean numbers with 원, and anything from ten thousand upwards is counted in 만.
The Korean currency is the won, 원, and a price is a Sino-Korean number followed by it: 오백 원, 천 원, 오천 원. As with all Sino-Korean numbers, the word for one is not said before 천 or 만: a 1,000-won note is 천 원, a 10,000-won note 만 원.
Because prices quickly reach five or six figures, 만 (10,000) does most of the work. Up to 만 the numbers behave as in English; above it, Korean counts how many ten-thousands there are: 이만 원 is 20,000, 오만 원 50,000, 십만 원 100,000, 백만 원 a million. The next unit is 억, a hundred million, which is ten thousand 만. To read a price, split off the last four digits: 350,000 is 35|0000, 삼십오만.
In writing, the spacing follows the same blocks of four: a space after the 만 group, and a space before 원, which is a separate word. 35,000 won is therefore 삼만 오천 원. On labels and receipts prices are written in digits, but they are read exactly like this.
To ask the price, say 얼마예요? — 이거 얼마예요?, 모두 얼마예요? (altogether). "Per" is 에: 한 개에 천 원, a thousand won each. -짜리 after an amount says what something is worth or names a note: 만 원짜리, a 10,000-won note. The classic English-speaker mistake is grouping in thousands and saying "three hundred and fifty thousand" word for word.
The form
| 1,000 and 10,000 | 천 원, 만 원 |
| 50,000 | 오만 원 |
| 350,000 | 삼십오만 원 |
| 35,000, with a space after the 10,000s | 삼만 오천 원 |
| how much? | 얼마예요? |
| per item | 한 개에 천 원 |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is aboutThe word that calls for it
A price is a Sino-Korean number followed by 원.
이 볼펜은 천오백 원이에요.This pen is 1,500 won.
From ten thousand upwards, count in 만: 50,000 is five 만.
이 신발은 오만 원이에요.These shoes are 50,000 won.
A price takes a space after the block of ten-thousands and before 원.
택시비가 만 이천 원 나왔어요.The taxi fare came to 12,000 won.
얼마예요 asks the price, and 에 says per item.
이 사과는 한 개에 얼마예요?How much are these apples each?
-짜리 says what something is worth, or which note it is.
만 원짜리 지폐로 내도 돼요?Can I pay with a 10,000-won note?
A closer look
Reading a long number in two steps
Any amount can be read in two steps. First cut it into blocks of four digits from the right; then read each block as an ordinary number and name its unit. 1,250,000 becomes 125|0000, 백이십오만. 12,345 becomes 1|2345, 만 이천삼백사십오. 30,000,000 becomes 3000|0000, 삼천만.
Above that, the next block is 억: 200,000,000 is 2|0000|0000, 이억. Prices of flats and salaries are often given like this, sometimes with the smaller blocks left out for a round figure. Once the blocks are second nature, converting into another currency is the only hard part.
Exceptions and special cases (1)
-
an amount is written on a cheque, a contract or a formal document
the one may be written: 일만 원, 일천 원.
금액은 일만 원입니다.The amount is 10,000 won.
In a written amount the extra 일 leaves no room to add a digit in front. In speech it is dropped.
How to spot it
- 원
- 만
- 얼마
- -짜리
- 에
Example sentences
이거 얼마예요? — 삼천 원이에요.How much is this? — 3,000 won.
모두 이만 팔천 원입니다.That is 28,000 won altogether.
월세가 오십만 원이에요.The rent is 500,000 won a month.
이 노트북은 백오십만 원쯤 해요.This laptop costs about one and a half million won.
귤은 한 봉지에 오천 원이에요.The tangerines are 5,000 won a bag.
지갑에 만 원 있어요.I have 10,000 won in my wallet.
8 more example sentences
커피 두 잔에 구천 원이에요.Two coffees come to 9,000 won.
이 가게에서는 김밥 한 줄에 삼천오백 원이에요.In this shop a roll of gimbap is 3,500 won.
이 자전거를 이십만 원에 샀어요.I bought this bike for 200,000 won.
통장에 천만 원이 있어요.There is ten million won in the account.
거스름돈은 칠백 원이에요.Your change is 700 won.
이 집은 삼억 원이에요.This house costs 300 million won.
티셔츠가 만 오천 원이에요.The T-shirt is 15,000 won.
오천 원짜리 있어요?Do you have a 5,000-won note?
Worth knowing (1)
-
Roughly: 대 after a round amount
대 after a round amount means somewhere in that range: 삼만 원대 is between 30,000 and 39,999 won. It is how people give a price without the exact figure.
그 식당은 한 사람당 이만 원대예요.That restaurant costs twenty-something thousand won per person.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
Translating "three hundred and fifty thousand" word for word gives a number Korean does not have. Korean counts ten-thousands: 350,000 is 35 of them, 삼십오만. Split off the last four digits first, read what is left, and add 만.
Move the comma four places: 350,000 is samsibo-man, thirty-five ten-thousands.
Your turn
9 exercises on this topic. Your answers are checked in the browser; none of them leaves your device.