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Counting in Korean - When To Use Sino-Korean and Native Numbers in Daily Life
Published 2025-03-19

Numbers: Counting Things in Korean (Part 3 of 4)

In the previous lesson, we learned how to count past ten using both the Sino-Korean and native Korean number systems. In this lesson, we’ll learn when to use each system in daily conversation. Let’s begin!


Counters are words that follow numbers when denoting how many of a certain thing there are. The structure looks like this:

Noun + number + counter word

Let’s take a look at some counter words in Korean. For example:

고양이 세 마리

Three cats

치킨 두

Two pieces of (fried) chicken*

다섯

Five floors

One person

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Did you know?

*In Korean, 치킨 almost always refers to fried chicken. To say chicken meat in general, use 닭고기. The word 닭 itself refers to chicken (the animal). We’ll learn more about meats in a later lesson.

You may notice a couple of things in the above sentence examples. For one, “두” and “세” are not exactly the native Korean numbers we learned in previous lessons. Why isn’t it “고양이 셋 마리”?

This is because there are 5 numbers that are slightly changed when they are used to count. They are:

하나 (1) → 한
둘 (2) → 두
셋 (3) → 세
넷 (4) → 네
스물 (20) → 스무
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These five numbers only change when they are used with a counter. For example, 11 things is “열한개”, but if you’re simply reciting the number 11, it’d still be 열하나.

The second thing you might have noticed is that all the above sentence examples are using native Korean numbers. Let’s review when to use each number system.


Sino-Korean and Native Korean Numbers - When To Use Them?

In general, the native Korean numbers are used to count objects and/or living things. This includes counting people, animals, clothes, houses, bottles, etc. Outside of those things, we also use native Korean numbers to count hours (when telling time) and age.

As you can probably tell from the above, different counters go with different nouns. Let’s review some counters and what things they are associated with.

(to count general things/objects)
(to count people)
마리 (to count animals)
(to count age)
(to count houses)
(to count larger structures like buildings)
(to count floors)
켤레 (to count footwear)
(to count clothes)
자루 (to count pencils/pens)
(to count books)
(to count sheets of paper)
조각 (to count pieces of something)
(to count bottles)
(to count machines)

Now we can put sentences together using the counters above:

우리 아기는 세이에요.

My baby is three years old.

피자 다섯 조각주세요.

Please give me five slices of pizza.

책 두 샀어요.

I bought two books.

우리 가족은 여섯 이에요.

My family has six people.

저는 차가 세 있어요.

I have three cars.

저는 양말 스물셋켤레 있어요.

I have twenty-three pairs of socks.


Note that there are even more counters than the ones I listed above! Some are pretty common, for example:

커피 세

Three cups/glasses of coffee

반찬 세 가지

Three kinds/categories/groups of 반찬*

*반찬 are small Korean side dishes served with rice, often shared among the table.

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If you are ever unsure of which counter to use, you can default to using 개. 개 is a general counter for things, usually non-sentient, that don’t already have their own counter. You can use it as a catch-all.

We won’t cover literally all the counters here. Now, notice that so far we’ve only been using native Korean numbers to count. That’s because the counters we’ve covered so far are native Korean counters. However, there are also Sino-Korean counters, to be used with Sino-Korean numbers.

Let’s now learn about when you would use Sino-Korean numbers to count things.


Counting using Sino-Korean numbers

Sino-Korean numbers are used when you do math, or when you need a number to signify information or to assign to something. Some use cases for Sino-Korean numbers:

phone numbers*

room numbers/addresses

height/weight

money

school grade

temperature

years/months/minutes/seconds*

*we will talk more about these topics in a later lesson.

As you might expect, when talking about some of the above, you also need to use counters. These counters differ from the native Korean ones! When you see a Sino-Korean counter, you can assume you will need to use Sino-Korean numbers.

Let’s take a look at some sentences.

사백삼십 가 어디예요?

Where is room 430?

저는 공오생이에요.

I was born in 05 (2005).*

팔천오백 입니다.

That’ll be 8500 won.

버스가 도착했어요.

The number 8 bus has arrived.

저는 오 학년이에요.

I am in 5th grade.

저는 4개국어를 할수있어요.

I can speak 4 languages.

*I (The Korean Learner) am a lot older than this.

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Did you know?

The number zero, 0, is represented by either 공 or 영 in Korean. These are both Sino-Korean, as there is no 0 in the native Korean number system. These are used in different situations; 공 is used when writing/reciting codes like telephone numbers and zip codes, whereas 영 is used for things like counting or scoring.

시험 영점 받았어.

I got a zero on the test.

You can see a counter, 점, being used here. 점 is a counter used for many different things, but most often it is used to count score (like on an exam).

We’ll learn more about use cases for 공 in a later lesson.

Wrap Up

A reminder from the previous lesson - when writing Korean you can often just write the number itself. 8500원 is perfectly fine; you simply need to remember your counters. Speaking out loud is when you will really take advantage of all we’ve learned in the past few lessons.

Also, remember that most Koreans these days don’t know the native number system that far past 10. I’ve seen people say it’s common to switch to Sino-Korean numbers past 60, and even around 40. Know that even when switching to Sino-Korean from native, you can still use the 개 counter. That counter is your best friend.

It’s not uncommon for people older in age to use Sino-Korean numbers to say how old they are:

할아버지께서는 육십 일 세 이십니다.

My grandpa is 61 years old.

Notice that the counter here is 세, and not 살 like I mentioned earlier in this lesson. Sometimes there are two counters for the exact same thing, one native and one Sino-Korean, that changes based on the number system you use.

And still, sometimes there is one counter that changes its meaning when you pair it with a native or Sino-Korean number. We will cover these counters in the next lesson.

Give yourself a pat on the back! This was a mouthful. Remember to practice, and I’ll see you in the next one.

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Numbers: Counting Things in Korean (Part 2 of 4)
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Numbers: Counting Things in Korean (Part 4 of 4)