Numbers

Introduction

In Korean, there are two counting systems: the Korean, and the Chinese.

There are rules for which ones are used when, but it just takes some getting used to.

There are also counting nouns. These are nouns that need a number in front of them.

Korean Numbers

Korean numbers are usually used for counting things. There are two forms: The adjective and noun forms.

Use the noun forms when you are using the number all alone. Use the adjective form when you are attaching the number to a noun.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	20	30	40	50	60	70	80	90
Noun	하나	둘	셋	넷	다섯	여섯	일곱	여덟	아홉	열	스믈	서렌	마흔	쉰	여슨	이른	여든	아흔
Adjective

Don't worry too much about the numbers after 20. Many very young Koreans have a hard time remembering them. Koreans fall back to the Chinese numbers beyond there since they are easier to remember.

The patter for numbers beyond 10, such as 18, is simply "10" + "8". So "18" is "열여덟" while "58" is "쉰여덟". Beyond a hundred, you can use Chinese, with the numbers smaller than 100 using Korean. This is really uncommon, so don't worry about it too much.

Counting Nouns

If you want to say "1 elephant", then you can't put "one" in front of "elephant". You have to say:

"elephant" + number + "counter for animals".

This is how most things are counted. There are only a few counters, and they need to be memorized. Some of them like Korean numbers, and others like Chinese numbers.

Note that you can fall back to the basic counters "개" and "명" with Korean numbers if you get lost. Koreans will understand you and quickly tell you what the counter is.

Note that the phrase, "One ~, while the other ~" doesn't use a counter. So you'll see "한" violate this rule from time to time and stick itself right on to the noun without the counter.