Korean Language Tutorial

Lesson 12

Korean lessons: Lesson 12
Korean Numbers
Korean numbers are actually very easy once you get the hang of them. But, because they are so different from English numbers, it is often hard for English speakers to fully understand them at first.
First thing you need to know, there are two sets of numbers in Korean: The pure Korean numbers and the numbers derived from Chinese (called Sino-Korean numbers). Let's look at the Sino-Korean numbers first, because they are easier:
Numbers (I)
Two Sets of numbers
Two sets of numbers are in use in Korean: native Korean and Chinese-based sets. The Chinese-based set transmitted to Korea long time ago, probably with Chinese writing system, to settle in the language. It is also the case in Japanese, and we see certain phonological similarity among Chinese numbers and Chinese-based sets of Japanese and Korean numbers.
Japanese Korean
one yi ichi il (일)
two er ni i (이)
three san san sam (삼)
four si shi sa (사)
five wu go o (오)
In fact, the Japanese and Korean sounds of Chinese numbers are quite similar to those in many modern Chinese dialects, sometimes even more similar than modern Mandarin to them. The Chinese remnants in Japanese and Korean, along with other Chinese dialects, reflect old phases of Chinese language.
For the sake of our convenience, let us call these two sets 'Pure Korean numbers' and ' Sino Korean numbers.' Here are the two sets of 1 to 10.
Korean numbers
1 하나
2 둘
3 셋
4 넷
5 다섯
6 여섯
7 일곱
8 여덟
9 아홉
10 열
Sino Korean numbers
1 일
2 이
3 삼
4 사
5 오
6 육
7 칠
8 팔
9 구
10 십
There is no semantic difference between the two sets. Both '하나' and '일' means one. They differ according to when and how they are used. We will discuss this in the next lesson.