Cramming Korean: Numbers – Part 1

Numbers – simple, right? No.

Gun approves of the number one.

There are two types of numbers in Korean: the Sino-Korean number system adapted from the Chinese language, and the native Korean number system. The context when one or the other system is used varies. From every source I have read, there are no hard and fast rules regarding when one system is used and the other is not, which is unfortunate for those of us struggling to learn Korean.

Here are some safe generalizations:

• Sino Korean numbers tend to be used for numbers greater than 100.
• When telling the time, use native Korean for the hour and Sino-Korean for the minutes
• Age is given in native Korean

Sino-Korean Numbers

1 일 il

2 이 i

3 삼 sam

4 사 sa

5 오 o

6 륙 or 육 ryuk or yuk

7 칠 chil

8 팔 pal

9 구 gu

10 십 sip

As in Chinese, higher numbers follow this pattern:

11 (ten one) 십일 sip il

25 (two ten five) 이십오 i sip o

After 99, the following are useful:

100 백 baek

1000 천 cheon

10000 만 man

And, they follow the same pattern:

105 (one hundred five) 일백오 il baek o

2505 (two thousand five hundred five) 이천오백오 i cheon o baek o

25300 (two ten thousand five thousand three hundred) 이만오천삼백 i man o cheon sam baek

We will tackle the native Korean number system in a future post.