LEARN KOREAN (한국어) [GRAMMAR] #1

USING NUMBERS: COUNTERS

When counting anything in Korean, you need to use the pure Korean numbers. In addition, one thing that is very hard for English speakers to wrap their head around is that, when counting most things in Korean, you need to also include a 'counter.' The most common counters are:

개 - counter for things
명 - counter for people
번 - counter for behaviors/actions

There are many more counters, but if you can't remember the specific counter of something, you can usually substitute "개" (the counter for "thing") instead. You will learn the more difficult counters as you progress through future lessons. For now, the goal is to get you accustomed to using these three simple counters.

When counting in English, we usually don't use counters. Rather we just say: "two people," as in:

I met two people

But some things in English require the use of these counters. For example, you could not say "I bought two films" (referring to the film in a camera, not a 'movie'). Instead, you have to say "I bought two rolls of film." The word roll in that sentence is a counter, and is similar to the counters in Korean. The main difference is that counters are used to count almost everything in Korean.

The words 1, 2, 3, 4 and 20 change when adding a counter:

1 - 하나 ~> 한
2 - 둘 ~> 두
3 - 셋 ~> 세
4 - 넷 ~> 네
20 - 스물 ~> 스무

Place a number, followed by a counter, after a noun to indicate how many of that thing there are. For example:

사람 두 명 - 2 people
사람 한 명 - 1 person
펜 다섯 개 - 5 pens
펜 마흔네 개 - 44 pens

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It is also possible to put the number-counter combination before the noun that is being counted. However, the method shown immediately above is much more common. When placed before the noun, "~의" is added to the counter, for example:

두 명의 사람 - 2 people
한 명의 사람 - 1 person
다섯 개의 펜 - 5 pens
마흔네 개의 펜 - 44 pens

As I said, it is usually less common to count using this method, so for now, don't worry about this grammar. I simply want you to know that it can be done. Pay more attention to the "사람 두 명" form instead of the "두 명의 사람" form.

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When writing out the word instead of using the numeral (for example, writing "한" instead of "1") the correct form is to have a space between the written number and the counter. For example:

한 개 instead of 한개
두 번 instead of 두번
세 명 instead of 세명

When the Korean numbers are used (i.e. when counting things or actions), the word is more typically used than the numeral. You will usually see the Korean word written out when a counter is used.

In other situations where Sino-Korean numbers are used, there is no difference if you use the Sino-Korean numeral or the word.

These nouns that we have counted can now become the object of a sentence:

나는 펜 네 개를 샀어 - I bought four pens
나는 햄버거 두 개를 먹었어 - I ate two hamburgers
나는 어제 친구 다섯 명을 만났어 - I met five friends yesterday

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The number-counter combination could also be placed before the noun, as we discussed earlier:

나는 네 개의 펜을 샀어 - I bought four pens
나는 두 개의 햄버거를 먹었어 - I ate two hamburgers
나는 어제 다섯 명의 친구를 만났어 - I met five friends yesterday

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Although the placement of the particles is important for your initial understanding of Korean grammar, eventually, you will become more comfortable with omitting particles altogether. Omitting particles is not something I recommend for a beginner because it is very important that you understand how to use them perfectly for more complex sentences. Nonetheless, most often in speech, particles in this situation are often omitted. For example, you might hear something like this:

나는 펜 네 개 샀어 - I bought 4 pens

In this structure, it is also possible to put the particle on the noun instead of the counter, for example:

나는 펜을 네 개 샀어 - I bought 4 pens

Try not to worry about this too much at this stage, as the following three sentences would sound perfect to Korean people:

나는 펜 네 개 샀어
나는 펜을 네 개 샀어
나는 펜 네 개를 샀어

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Here are some more examples of counters in use:

그 사람은 차 네 대가 있어요 - That person has four cars
저는 우유 두 잔을 샀어요 - I bought two glasses of milk
저는 땅콩 두 개를 먹었어요 - I ate two peanuts