In Korean, there are many words that are used as counting units. In English, you can just say the number and then the word for what you are counting (i.e. a person, two cats, three houses, etc), but in Korean, you need to use separate counters for different subjects. You can compare the Korean counters to the English words that are used for counting things that are uncountable nouns (i.e. bread, water, butter, etc).
** Since there are too many counters to remember all at once, it is better to learn them one by one as you practice using certain words.
Example
English: number + noun
- a car, two pencils, three books, four people, etc
Korean: noun + number + counter
- “pencil + one + counter for pencil”
- “student + three + counter for people”
There are literally hundreds of counters in the Korean language, but not all of them are always used. As long as they understand each other, some Korean people just use the simplest and easiest counter they remember to count certain words and it does not confuse anyone. For example, in Korean, a pencil is 연필 [yeon-pi] and the counter for pencils is 자루 [ja-ru]. The word 자루 [ja-ru] is also used for counting pens, bags containing grains, and also knives. So instead of using the word 자루 all the time for 연필, many Korean people just use the general counter for things, which is 개 [gae].
연필 한 자루 [yeon-pil han ja-ru] = one pencil
연필 한 개 [yeon-pil han gae] = one pencil
This does NOT always work for all counters. Some counters that are very commonly used are almost never replaced with 개. For example, the counter for cars is 대 [dae], and it is never replaced with 개 [gae] just to simplify it. In other words, changing 연필 한 자루 to 연필 한 개 is okay, but changing 차 한 대 to 차 한 개 is not okay and considered incorrect.
This is only because the counter 대 is much more frequently used than the counter 자루, but basically, as a learner of the Korean language, it is much better to be able to use an incorrect counter and be given feedback rather than choose not to say anything.
In this lesson, remember these two most frequently used counters, 개 and 명.
개 [gae] in Korean means “a dog”, but when it’s used as a counter, it is used for counting things and objects.
명 [myeong] is used for counting people.
And when you use counters, most of the time, they are used along with native Korean numbers.
Numbers + 개 [gae] (counter for things)
1 = 하나 --> 한 개
2 = 둘 --> 두 개
3 = 셋 --> 세 개
4 = 넷 --> 네 개
** Remember this irregularity rule for the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 20?
5 = 다섯 --> 다섯 개
6 = 여섯 --> 여섯 개
7 = 일곱 --> 일곱 개
8 = 여덟 --> 여덟 개
9 = 아홉 --> 아홉 개
10 = 열 --> 열 개
From 11 to 20
열한 개, 열두 개, 열세 개, 열네 개, 열다섯 개, 열여섯 개, 열일곱 개, 열여덟 개, 열아홉 개, 스무 개
From 21 to 30
스무 개, 스물한 개, 스물두 개, 스물세 개, 스물네 개, 스물다섯 개, 스물여섯 개, 스물일곱 개, 스물여덟 개, 스물아홉 개, 서른 개
Example
one apple = 사과 [sa-gwa] + 1 + 개 [gae] = 사과 한 개 [sa-gwa han gae]
two stones = 돌 [dol] + 2 + 개 [gae] = 돌 두 개 [dol du gae]
five balls = 공 [gong] + 5 + 개 [gae] = 공 다섯 개 [gong da-seot gae]
how many (things) = 몇 [myeot] + 개 [gae] = 몇 개 [myeot gae]
Now, for people, you use the counter 명 [myeong].
one person = 한 명 [han myeong]
two students = 학생 [hak-saeng] + 2 + 명 [myeong] = 학생 두 명 [hak-saeng du myeong]
three friends = 친구 [chin-gu] + 3 + 명 [myeong] = 친구 세 명 [chin-gu se myeong]
how many (people) = 몇 [myeot] + 명 [myeong] = 몇 명 [myeot myeong]
For people, however, the word for ‘people’ or ‘person’ itself, which is 사람 [sa-ram] is used as well, when you are just generally referring to a relatively small number of people, without specifying who they are.
Example
Q: How many people are there?
A: There are 10 people.
= Q: 몇 명 있어요? [myeot myeong i-sseo-yo?]
= A: 10명 있어요. [yeol-myeong i-sseo-yo.]
= Q: 몇 사람 있어요? [myeot sa-ram i-sseo-yo?]
= A: 열 사람 있어요. [eol sa-ram i-sseo-yo.] (This is unnatural.)
--> A: 두 사람 있어요. [du sa-ram i-sseo-yo.] (two people - this is okay.)
In case you want to learn about some more counters in advance, here are a few commonly used ones.
병 [byeong] = bottles
마리 [ma-ri] = animals
대 [dae] = cars, punches
권 [gwon] = books
장 [jang] = paper, pages, tickets
Sample sentences by our friends
영주: 아줌마 김치찌개 한 개 주세요.
[a-jum-ma gim-chi-jji-gae han gae ju-se-yo.]
= Ma’am, give me one kimchi stew.
찌개 [jji-gae] = stew
영주: 소주도 한 병 주세요.
[so-ju-do han byeong ju-se-yo.]
= Give me a bottle of soju, as well.
효성: 다 먹고 세 개 남았어요.
[da meok-go se gae na-ma-sseo-yo.]
= I ate everything and there are three left.
다 [da] = all
남다 [nam-da] = to remain, to be left
효성: 사탕 몇 개 먹을래?
[sa-tang myeot gae meo-geul-lae?]
= How many candies do you want to eat?
사탕 [sa-tang] = candy
먹다 [meok-da] = to eat
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