Numbers play an essential role in learning a foreign language. Thus, learning to count in Korean will be a useful skill to acquire if you would like to expand your fluency in Korean. Korean numbering systems might seem complicated at first, but you will soon realize that they have patterns that repeat as numbering systems in English do. Once you recognized the patterns, you will be able to breeze through the numbers 1-100 in Korean.

The last post was about one of the Korean numbering systems, Sino-Korean numbers. I hope you had an opportunity to practice and master your counting skills in Sino-Korean numbers. If you need to review Sino- Korean numbers and their pronunciation, please follow this link, Sino-Korean Numbers: How to Count 1-100 in Korean #1.  The next post will be about the other numbering systems in Korean, Pure Korean numbers. These two numbering systems, Sino & Pure Korean numbers, are not interchangeable because they are used in different circumstances. Therefore, it is a good idea to understand and memorize the Sino-Korean numbering system, before we talk about the Pure Korean numbers next week.

 Let’s try to tackle Sino-Korean Numbers together. Once you are done guessing the following numbers in Korean, please check your answers at the bottom of this post. Good luck!!!

• Phone number

1. 119: This is the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) number in Korea. Did you notice the interesting order of this phone number? For emergencies, you dial 119 instead of 911 in Korea.

2. 112: This is the number to contact the police department when in need of law enforcemen

3. 010 – 9876 – 5431: This is a fictitious Korean cell phone number. So please, don’t try to call me on this number ^^

• Price: the Korean monetary unit won(원) is used after Sino-Korean         

4. 10 원
5. 50 원
6. 100 원

• Birthday (생일):    ‘Sino-Korean number + 월’ refers to a ‘month’ in English

                                  ‘Sino-Korean number +일’ refers to a ‘date’ in English.

ex) 제 생일은                            월             일이에요.

     [je sang-il-eun]             ___ [wol]         [il-ee-ye-yo]

    (My birthday        is       month        date.)

7. 제 생일은                            7월         4일이에요.

[je sang-il-eun]                     7 [wol]   4 [il-ee-ye-yo]

(My birthday        is              July         4 .)

8. 수호 생일은                        5 월            22일이에요.

[Su Ho sang-il-eun]                5 [wol]      22 [il-ee-ye-yo]

(Su Ho’s birthday     is            May           22.)

 

Are you read to check your answer?

1. 119 : 일일구 [il-il-goo]
2. 112 : 일일이 [il-il-ee]
3. 010 – 9876 – 5431: 공일공 – 구팔칠육 – 오사삼일 [kong-il-kong – goo-pal-chil-yook – o-sa-sam-il]

* For phone numbers, [kong] is more often used than [young] for zero in Korean.

4. 10 원 [ship won]
5. 50 원 [o-ship won]
6. 100 원 [bak won]
7. 7월 4일 [chil-wol sa-il]
8. 5월 22일 [o-wol ee-ship-ee-il]

감사합니다! (Thank you!)