EveryEduEnglishKorean
Counting in Korean
Two sets of numbers, and the one question that tells them apart
Korean numbers stop learners not because they are hard but because there are two complete sets of them, and the most ordinary sentence you will ever say — 세 시 삼십 분, half past three — contains both in a single breath. Seven daily lessons build one question you can ask yourself in any situation: am I counting something, or reading something? Counting takes the native set, reading takes the Sino set, and almost every case follows from that. Along the way you will learn to cut large numbers at 만 instead of at a thousand, so a 15,000 won lunch stops being arithmetic; to use the twelve counters that carry you through daily life and to fall back on 개 for the dozens you will never learn; to tell 시 from 시간, a point on the clock from a length of time; and to write 유월 and 시월, the only two months in the calendar that change their spelling. The last day takes you outside to the numbers actually printed around a Korean city — floors, bus routes, subway exits, room numbers — and gives you the three small words that let you be approximate while your numbers are still slow.
- Lessons
- 7
- Days
- 7
- Minutes
- 170
- Quiz items
- 49
- To pass
- 80%
Curriculum
Each lesson opens when the one before it is passed at 80%.
Week 1 · Numbers, counters and the clock
- 1Two sets of numbers, and one question that tells them apartWhy Korean counts with one set and reads with anotherSay one to ten in both sets, and decide which set a situation needs.
- Sino numbers, all the way upTen syllables build every number you will ever need — but Korean cuts at 만, not at a thousandRead any price, year or large figure aloud, grouping by ten thousand.
- Native numbers, and the shape change nobody warns you about하나 becomes 한, 스물 becomes 스무 — and the set simply stops at 99Count to 99 in native Korean and use the shortened forms in front of a counter.
- Bonus chapter 1Opens after lesson 3
- Counters — twelve that carry you, and 개 for everything elseWhy Korean cannot say "two coffees", and what to do when you do not know the counterBuild a noun + number + counter phrase and ask how many with 몇.
- The clock — where both sets meet in one breath세 시 삼십 분, and the difference between 시 and 시간Tell the time, say how long something takes, and give a range with 부터 and 까지.
- Dates and age — and the two months that change their spelling유월, 시월, 며칠, and what happened to Korean age in 2023Say any date and day of the week, ask someone's age, and give your own.
- Bonus chapter 2Opens after lesson 6
- Numbers in the wildFloors, buses, exits, orders of things, percentages, and the Korean word for "about"Read the numbers printed around a Korean city and soften a figure you are unsure of.
Languages this course is written in
The lessons are explained in one language. Where a translation exists your screen uses it; where it does not, you see the original rather than a blank.
About this course
Questions and notes from people taking it.
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