Arabic | Native Korean System | Chinese Character System (Sino-Korean System) |
0 | 영 (young) | |
1 | 하나 (hahnah) | 일 (eel) |
2 | 둘 (dool) | 이 (ee) |
3 | 셋 (seht) | 삼 (sahm) |
4 | 넷 (neht) | 사 (sah) |
5 | 다섯 (dah-sut) | 오 (oh) |
6 | 여섯 (yeo-sut) | 육 (yook) |
7 | 일곱 (eel-gob) | 칠 (chil) |
8 | 여덟 (yeo-dul) | 팔 (pahl) |
9 | 아홉 (ah-hope) | 구 (goo) |
10 | 열 (yeol) | 십 (shib) |
2 different system of cardinal numbers
There are 2 different system of cardinal numbers in Korean -- one derived from Chinese characters, in other words, Sino-Korean, and the other from native Korean. Koreans use one of them based on the situation.
1. Native Korean numbers exist only from 1 to 99. If the number is either 0 or above 100, Koreans only use the Chinese character system of numbers.
2. Native Korean numbers are usually used when you count something or say someone's age or hours.
□ 나는 다섯 살입니다.
- naneun dah-sut sahrimnida.
- I am five years old.
□ 지금 두 시입니다.
- jigeum du shi-imnida.
- It's two o'clock.
Chinese oriented numbers are used for dates, money, minutes and seconds, addresses, and phone numbers.
□ 오늘은 이 월 구 일입니다.
- ohneureun ee wol goo yeerimnida
- It's February 9 today.
Other posts
You can check more on how to count in Korean from my other posts.
□ from 0 to 10
□ from 10 to 99
□ from 100 and more