Numbers, time, dates and money in Korean

Hours are counted in native Korean

Korean has two sets of numbers, and the clock uses both: the hour in the native set, the minutes in the Sino-Korean one. One o’clock is 한 시, two o’clock 두 시, twelve o’clock 열두 시. 일 시 is what comes out if you learn the Sino-Korean numbers first and use them everywhere — which is exactly what most learners do.

Minutes are counted in Sino-Korean

Having learnt that the hour is native, many learners carry on in the same set. The minutes switch: 세 시 이십 분, 세 시 오 분. There is no rule that tells you which set a counter takes; you learn it with the counter, and 시 and 분 are the pair that shows it first.

Twelve o’clock is native too

The native numbers go on past ten: eleven is 열하나 and twelve 열둘, and in front of a counter 열한 and 열두. So eleven and twelve o’clock are 열한 시 and 열두 시, never with 십일 or 십이.

Four in front of a counter is ne

Four native numbers lose their last sound in front of a counter: 하나 becomes 한, 둘 두, 셋 세 and 넷 네. Counted on their own, as in “one, two, three”, they keep it; in front of 시, 개, 명 or 살 they never do.

One of something is han

하나 is “one” when you count or answer “how many?” with a bare number. In front of a counter it is 한: 한 개, 한 명, 한 잔. The same short form is what makes 한국 look as though it had a “one” in it — it does not; that 한 is a different word.

People are counted in native Korean

People, things, animals, bottles, cups and books are counted with the native numbers: 두 명, 세 개, 네 마리. From a hundred upwards the native set has no words left, and Sino-Korean takes over: 백 명.

Twenty on its own is seumu

Twenty is 스물, and in front of a counter it drops its l: 스무 살, 스무 개, 스무 명. Only twenty on its own does this. As soon as a unit follows, the tens keep their full form and the unit takes the short one.

Twenty-one keeps its l

The short form belongs to the last word of the number only. In twenty-one, the one shrinks and the twenty does not: 스물한 살, 스물두 명, 스물세 개. 스무 appears only where twenty itself is the last word.

Your age is native

Age in years is counted with 살 and the native numbers: 서른 살, 마흔 살, 스무 살. On forms, in the news and in formal speech you will see 세 instead, with the Sino-Korean numbers: 삼십 세. Each counter takes its own set, and mixing them — 삼십 살 — is the combination to avoid.

Ten thousand is a unit of its own

English groups digits in threes and names every third step: thousand, million, billion. Korean groups them in fours, and the step after 천, a thousand, is a word of its own: 만, ten thousand. There is no way to build it from the word for a thousand. It helps to move the comma in your head: written as 1,0000, the number reads itself.

Fifteen thousand is one man and five thousand

“Fifteen thousand” translated word by word gives a number Korean does not build, because a thousand is never counted past nine. 15,000 is one 만 and five 천: 만 오천 원. Prices between ten and a hundred thousand won are all said like this, and you hear them several times a day.

A hundred thousand is ten ten-thousands

Once 만 is the unit, everything up to a hundred million is counted in it. 100,000 is ten of them, 십만, and 350,000 is thirty-five, 삼십오만. To read a long figure, split it into fours from the right, not into threes.

A million is a hundred ten-thousands

A million is a hundred 만: 백만. There is no separate word for it, and ten million is a thousand 만, 천만. Rents, salaries and the price of a flat are all said in 만, and in all of them the English million is the wrong yardstick.

A hundred million has a word, and a billion is ten of it

After 만 the next unit is 억, a hundred million: a one with eight noughts. A billion is ten of them, 십억, and a trillion is 일조, the next unit up. A figure given in 억 is easy to misread by a factor of ten, and on a budget that is not a small mistake.

A hundred million needs its one

Ten, a hundred, a thousand and ten thousand are said without a one: 십, 백, 천, 만. From 억 upwards the one comes back: 일억, 일조. A bare 억 is the unit, not the number.

A hundred has no one in front

English can say “one hundred” or “a hundred”; Korean says only 백, and the same goes for 십, 천 and 만. 일백 and 일천 exist, but only where a figure must not be altered — on a cheque or in a contract. In speech they sound like a bank form read aloud.

A gap in the number is not said

English says “a hundred and five”; Chinese says a zero for the empty place. Korean says neither: the empty tens are simply skipped, 백오. The same holds across a whole empty group: 10,050 is 만 오십. 영 is zero as a number on its own, never a filler inside one.

June is yuwol

The months are numbered — 일월, 이월, 삼월 — but two of them drop a sound to be easier to say. June is 유월, without the k of 육. The spelling follows the sound, so 육월 is not a variant, it is a mistake.

October is siwol

October is the other month that sheds a sound: 시월, without the p of 십. November and December keep theirs: 십일월, 십이월.

March is not three months

삼월 is March, the third month. A length of months needs a counter: 삼 개월 with the Sino-Korean numbers, or 석 달 or 세 달 with the native ones. Days and years need nothing extra: 이 일 is both the 2nd of the month and two days, and only the sentence tells them apart.

The 2nd is a date, two days a length

Korean has native words for lengths of days: 하루 one day, 이틀 two, 사흘 three. They count how long, never which day. The date is always Sino-Korean with 일: 오월 이 일, the 2nd of May.

Year, month, day

A Korean date runs from the largest unit to the smallest: year, month, day, then the weekday. Written in digits it is 2010년 7월 23일. A British date, day first, has to be turned round completely; an American one only needs the year moved to the front.

The weekdays have names, not numbers

If you know some Chinese, you expect the weekdays to be numbered. In Korean they are named after the moon, fire, water, wood, metal, earth and the sun: 월요일, 화요일, 수요일, 목요일, 금요일, 토요일, 일요일. Wednesday is the water day.

A year is one whole number

English reads a year in pairs, “nineteen eighty-four”. Korean reads the whole number, in Sino-Korean, with 년 after it: 천구백팔십사 년, 이천십 년. Followed by 동안, “for”, the same words are a length of time: 천구백팔십사 년 동안, for 1,984 years.

Morning and afternoon come first

English puts a.m. and p.m. after the time; Korean puts the part of the day in front of it — the larger unit first, as in a date: 오후 세 시, 아침 일곱 시, 밤 열한 시. And the whole time goes before the verb: 오후 세 시에 만나요, “let’s meet at three in the afternoon”.

Half past comes after the hour

Half past is 반, “half”, added after the hour that has just gone: 세 시 반 is 3:30, exactly as English counts. A learner who also speaks German, where “halb vier” is 3:30, should be careful twice. There is no word for a quarter; the minutes are counted: 세 시 십오 분.

Five to three names the coming hour

전 means “before”: 세 시 오 분 전 is five minutes before three, 2:55. As in English, the hour is the one that is coming; only the order differs — hour, minutes, then 전. The plain 두 시 오십오 분 is never wrong.

One o’clock is not one hour

시 is a point on the clock: 한 시 is one o’clock. A length of time is 시간, with the same native numbers: 한 시간, 두 시간 반. Minutes as a length are simply 분: 오 분 is five minutes, and 오 분 동안 “for five minutes”.

Two hours is native as well

시간 takes the native numbers, like 시: 두 시간, 세 시간. 이 시간 exists, and means something else entirely: “this time”, as in “at this time of night”, because 이 is also the word for “this”.

Five minutes is o bun

Minutes are Sino-Korean: 오 분, 십 분. And 다섯 분 is not just a wrong number — 분 is also the polite counter for people, so 다섯 분 means “five persons”, the way a restaurant greets a group of guests.

Three times and number three

번 is two counters in one. With the native numbers it counts how often: 세 번, three times. With the Sino-Korean numbers it names a number: 삼 번, number three — a bus, a seat, an exit, a question on a test.

Exit 3 is sam beon

Where a number is a label rather than a count, it is Sino-Korean: 삼 번 출구, exit 3, 이 호선, line 2, 십 번 버스, the number 10 bus. 세 번 출구 would be the third time you came to an exit.

Floor 3 is sam cheung

Floors are numbered with the Sino-Korean numbers: 삼 층. 세 층 is a count — “three storeys”, how tall a building is. And they are counted from the street: 일 층 is what British English calls the ground floor, so the British first floor is 이 층. Below ground the floors take 지하: 지하 일 층.

Two years is i nyeon

년 is a Sino-Korean counter, so the number in front is Sino-Korean: 이 년, 십 년. The native set has its own word for a year, 해: 두 해. What does not exist is the native number with the Sino-Korean counter.

Fifty thousand won is o man won

Money is counted in Sino-Korean, and from ten thousand won upwards in 만: 만 원, 오만 원, 십만 원. A price tag shows the digits with a comma every three places, as in English, so the habit to build is reading the last four digits as one block.

On the phone, zero is gong

Phone numbers, room numbers, account numbers and other strings of digits are read one digit at a time, in Sino-Korean, and zero in them is 공, “empty”. 영 is zero as a quantity: in arithmetic, in a decimal, on a thermometer.

After the point, digit by digit

The decimal point is 점, and the digits after it are read one at a time, as in English: 삼 점 일사. A nought is 영, in front of the point as well: 0.5 is 영 점 오.

A fraction names the whole first

A Korean fraction starts with the number of parts the whole is cut into, then says how many of them: 삼분의 일 is “of three parts, one”. A half is 이분의 일, or simply 반; three quarters 사분의 삼.

First has a word of its own

The everyday ordinal is the native number with 번째: 두 번째, 세 번째, 열한 번째. First is the exception, with 첫, the word for “first” you also find in 첫눈, the first snow. 한 번째 is not used.

Second is du beonjjae

번째 behaves like any other counter, so the number in front takes its short form: 두 번째, 세 번째, 네 번째, 스무 번째. Order in a family is the exception, with the full form and 째: 둘째, 셋째.

Two or three is duse

An estimate puts two neighbouring numbers together in their short forms, as one word: 두세 명, “two or three people”, 서너 개, “three or four”. They behave like one number in front of the counter.

Sixteen is said simnyuk

Sixteen is written 십육, and by the usual rule the p would carry over: sibyuk. It does not. An n is slipped in before 육, and the p turns into m in front of it: [심뉵], simnyuk. The same happens in 26, 36 and so on: 26, 36, 46.