KOREAN LANGUAGE TUTORIAL

LESSON 15

Korean lessons: Lesson 15

Using Numbers
Counters
When counting anything in Korean, you need to use the pure Korean numbers. In addition, one thing that is very hard for English speakers to wrap their head around is that, when counting, you need to also include a 'counter.' The most common counters are:

개 = counter for things
명 = counter for people
번 = counter for behaviors/actions
There are many more counters, but if you can't remember the specific counter of something, you can usually substitute 개 instead.
When counting in English, we would just say: two people, as in:
I met two people
But some things in English require the use of these counters as well. For example, you could not say "I bought two films" (referring to the film in a camera, not a 'movie'). Instead, you have to say "I bought two rolls of film." The word roll in that sentence is a counter, and is similar to the counters in Korean. The main difference is that counters are used to count everything in Korean.
The words 1, 2, 3, 4 and 20 change when adding a counter:
1 = 하나 -> 한
2 = 둘 -> 두
3 = 셋 -> 세
4 = 넷 -> 네
20 = 스물 -> 스무
All counters can be written in 2 different ways with no difference in meaning:
사람 두 명 OR 두 명의 사람 = 2 people
사람 한 명 OR 한 명의 사람 = 1 person
펜 다섯 개 OR 다섯 개의 펜 = 5 pens
펜 마흔 네 개 OR 마흔 네 개의 펜 = 44 pens
All are normally written with the numbers instead of writing the word itself:
사람 2명 = 2 people
4개의 펜 = 4 pens
"4 pens" or any other counted noun can now become the object of a sentence:
나는 펜 4개를 샀어 = I bought 4 pens
나는 햄버거 2개를 먹었어 = I ate two hamburgers
나는 어제 친구 5명을 만났어 = I met 5 friends yesterday
OR
나는 4개의 펜을 샀어 = I bought 4 pens
나는 2개의 햄버거를 먹었어 = I ate two hamburgers
나는 어제 5명의 친구를 만났어 = I met 5 friends yesterday
Notice the difference in placement of 를/을 in the first and second examples.

번 - Counter of Behavior or Action
번 is a common counter that counts behavior or actions, and is not directly counted with a noun in a sentence. #번 acts as an adverb that tells you how many times something was done. It is an adverb, so 를/을 is usually not attached to it.
저는 어제 학교에 3번 갔어요 = I went to school three times yesterday
저는 그 영화를 5번 봤어요 = I saw that movie five times
저는 오늘 2번 운동할 것입니다 = I will exercise twice (two times) today

Telling Korean Time
There are so many different ways to talk about time (seconds, minutes, weeks, hours, days, weeks, months, years, etc...). You will learn more about how to indicate when you did/do/will do something using these 'time' words in the next lesson. In this lesson, however, you will learn about telling time, as in the time on a clock.
When talking about the hour, as in '2 o'clock' all you need to do is put 시 after a number:
2시 = 2:00 (2 o'clock)
When talking about the minute, add 분 after the number:
2시30분 = 2:30
The pure Korean numbers are used when saying the hour number, whereas the Sino-Korean numbers are used when saying the minute number:
2시30분 (두 시 삼십 분) = 2:30
3시10분 = 3:10
12시 50 분 = 12:50
These times can now go in a sentence as usual by adding 에 to indicate a time:
나는 5시에 먹을 거야 = I will eat at 5:00
나는 2시30분에 왔어요 = I came at 2:30

번째- Counter for 1st/2nd/3rd/etc
번째 can be added as a counter after a number to mean 1st/2nd/3rd/etc. When saying "first" though, you do not use 한 (한번째). Instead, 한 gets changed to 첫 (첫번째). If you think that is confusing, explain how 'one' gets changed to 'first,' 'two' gets changed to 'second' and 'three' gets changed to 'third.' A noun can be added after #번째 as follows:
저의 첫번째 친구는 착했어요 = My first friend was nice
그 두번째 선생님은 똑똑했어요 = That second teacher was smart
세번째 거리 = the third street
Another useful word is '마지막' which can be used in many ways. One way it can be used it to talk about the 'last' something. Note that there are two similar but different meanings for the word "last" in English. 마지막 is used for only ONE of those meanings. 마지막 is used to talk about something that is the last thing in the end of sequence... as in "first meal... second meal... third meal... fourth meal... last meal." It is NOT used to talk about something in the past, as in "last night I went to bed late." Notice the difference between these two usages of "last night":
Last night I went to the movies
The last night of our trip was the best
The second example would be where you could use 마지막, because you are talking about the last night of a sequence of nights on a trip. In the first example, you are talking about the previous night. Both usages of 'last' can be used in the same sentence:
Last night I ate my last meal
Again, 'last night' refers to the previous night... and 'last meal' refers to the last meal of a sequence of meals. Let's confuse you one more time:
Last night was the last night of our trip.
Ha! Can you get that one?
Here's some examples of 마지막 in use:
이 것은 저의 마지막 수업이에요 = This is my last class
저는 마지막 것을 안 봤어요 = I didn't see the last thing (I didn't see that last one)
In these examples, 마지막 is being used as an adjective, even though it is not an adjective in its original form (it is not an adjective because it does not end in 다). Words can be used in this same way in English, as well. The word "face" is a noun. But in the sentence "I put on face paint last night", "face" is an adjective which tells you what kind of paint you used. Similarly, you could say "that is a computer room," where the word "computer" is telling you about the room.

처음- First Time
처음 is a very complex word that be used in many situations. I have been studying Korean for years and I still don't know how to use it perfectly in all situations. It can be used in sentences when you are talking about the first time something is being done. It can be used as a noun or an adverb, depending on the situation (which adds to it's complexity). The two most common situations are:
1) 처음에 ... (at first/in the beginning)
처음에 그 여자를 싫어했어요 = I didn't like that girl at first
2) Put in a sentence as an adverb to indicate this is the first time something has happened:
저는 어제 선생님을 처음 만났어요 = I met my teacher for the first time yesterday
저는 내일 한국에 처음 갈 것입니다 = I will go to Korea for the first time tomorrow