How to Count in Korean

     While waiting for the next weekend, I brushed up a bit on my knowledge on Korean numbers. My husband works from Monday to Saturday except on Holidays so I have to go to the grocery by myself most of the time. That why it's important that I know how to count especially how to count money!
     First time I learned this was in college when I asked my Korean friend to teach me how. There are two sets of numbers in Korean, the Sino-Korean System and the Native Korean System. She wrote the Sino-Korean System in my notebook which is why I still remember them.  My husband, of course, is a big help every time I forget something. This system is what they use for monetary value.


Sino- Korean System

• il         1
• i          2
• sam     3
• sa       4
• o         5
• yuk     6
• chil     7
• pal      8
• ku       9
• ship     10  

     * After the number 10, add "il" after "ship" for eleven, "i" after "ship" for twelve and so on, meaning ten plus one equals eleven, ten plus two equals twelve and so on...

• ship-il          11
• ship-i           12
• ship-sam      13
• ship-sa         14
• ship-o           15
• ship-yuk        16
• ship-chil        17
• ship-pal         18
• ship-ku          19
• ee-ship (i-ship)20

     * Twenty is i-ship, meaning two tens, thirty is sam-ship, meaning three tens and so on.

        Twenty-one is i-ship-il, meaning, two tens plus one. 

        Is it getting confusing now?

• ee-ship-il      21
• ee-ship-i       22
• ee-ship-sam 23
• ee-ship-sa    24
• ee-ship-o      25
• ee-ship-yuk   26
• ee-ship-chil    27
• ee-ship-pal    28
• ee-ship-ku     29

• sam-ship     30
• sa-ship        40
• o-ship          50
• yuk-ship      60
• chil-ship       70
• pal-ship        80
• ku-ship         90

• baek        100
• ee-baek    200 *meaning 2 x 100 = 200
• sam-baek 300

• cheon         1,000
• ee-cheon     2,000 *meaning 2 x 1000 = 2000
• sam-cheon  3,000

• man         10,000
• ee-man     20,000 *meaning 2 x 10,000 = 20,000
• sam-man  30,000

• ship-man        100,000
• baek-man     1,000,000
• cheon-man  10,000,000
• eok           100,000,000
• jo           1,000,000,000

     If you ask for a price of an item and the attendant tells you, ee-man-o-cheon-on, it means that the price is 25,000 won. Won is not pronounced as won, instead, it is pronounced as "on" at the end of the number.

More examples:

o-baek-(w)on   =   500 won

ku-cheon-sa-baek-on   =   9,400 won

ee-ship-man-ku-cheon-on   =   209,000 won

man-cheon-o-baek-on   = 11,500 won

     Practice a lot and enjoy shopping!!!