1 · 39 words
Numbers from Chinese: 일, 이, 삼 in Korean
The number set for prices, dates, floors, phone numbers and minutes.
Practise this list
From these 39 words, as many per round as you like — up to all of them: first what is due today, then new ones. First you choose, then you fill the gap, then you write it yourself. Mistakes come back again shortly.
More about this list
Korean has two sets of numbers, and which one you use depends on what you count. This set came from Chinese and covers money, dates, minutes, floors, room and bus numbers and anything written with digits: 삼천 원, 오 층, 십 분. Big numbers are grouped in tens of thousands, not thousands: 만 is 10,000, so 100,000 is 십만, “ten ten-thousands”. Ten, a hundred, a thousand and ten thousand carry no 일 for “one”: 100 is 백, not “one hundred”, and 10,000 is just 만.
The words
Noun (6)
번호number (phone, seat, account)Noun1
숫자number; digitNoun1
더하기plusNoun1
빼기minusNoun1
곱하기times, multiplied byNoun1
나누기divided byNoun1
Adverb (1)
제일most; best; firstAdverb1
Literally “number one”.
Numeral (19)
영zeroNumeral1
In phone numbers and room numbers people say 공 instead.
공zero (in phone numbers and codes)Numeral1
일oneNumeral1
이twoNumeral1
삼threeNumeral1
사fourNumeral1
It sounds like the word for death, so some buildings label the fourth floor with a letter instead.
오fiveNumeral1
육sixNumeral1
After a consonant inside a number it is said with an n: 십육 sounds [심뉵].
칠sevenNumeral1
팔eightNumeral1
구nineNumeral1
십tenNumeral1
Tens are built by putting a number in front: 이십 20, 삼십 30.
백hundredNumeral1
천thousandNumeral1
만ten thousandNumeral1
The unit Korean counts in: 50,000 is 오만, “five ten-thousands”.
십만a hundred thousandNumeral1
백만a millionNumeral1
Literally “a hundred ten-thousands”.
천만ten millionNumeral1
억a hundred millionNumeral1
The next step after 만: ten thousand ten-thousands.
Counter (13)
원won (Korean money)Counter1
달러dollarCounter1
번number (in a series)Counter1
With native numbers 번 counts times instead: 두 번, “twice”.
층floor, storeyCounter1
Counted from the street: 일 층 is the ground floor, 지하 일 층 the first basement.
호number (of a room or flat)Counter1
호선line (of the underground)Counter1
도degree (of temperature)Counter1
세years of age (formal)Counter1
Written and formal; in speech age is counted with native numbers and 살: 일곱 살.
쪽pageCounter1
회time; round; episodeCounter1
등place (in a ranking)Counter1
점point (score); decimal pointCounter1
Also the decimal point: 삼 점 오 is 3.5.
박night (of a stay)Counter1
Korean gives nights first, then days: 이 박 삼 일.
Missing a word? Look it up in the dictionary
This list belongs to Basic words: numbers, time, verbs — 30 lists and 1 221 words that can also be practised as a whole.