This article explains how to count numbers, money (currency) and other objects in Korean. We will cover from zero to very large numbers (trillions).

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Overview

Two Counting Systems in Korean

When learning a foreign language, one thing we want to know at an early stage is how to count numbers in that language.  Numbers, however, may well be the most complicated part of Korean.

Koreans use two different numbering systems, depending on the object being counted (e.g. money, phone number, people, hours, or simply how many there are).

Imagine you are talking to a clerk at a gift shop in Korea:

"How much are these?"

"They're 10 Won [Korean currency] each."

"Can I get 10 of these?"

"Of course."

In this short conversation, number "10" is mentioned twice, but two completely different words are spoken.  For "10 Won" (for counting money), one counting system is used, and for "10 of these", a different one is used.  And the choice is not a matter of style.   If you mix up the counting systems, the clerk would have no clue what you are trying to say.

The two systems are summarized in Tables 1 & 2 and explained in detail below.

Table 1 : Brief Overview of the Two Counting Systems

Table 2: Choosing the Correct System to Use

Detailed Explanations

Korean Numbers

: SYSTEM 1

Component Words and Grand Units

The following 16 words are all you need to know to count from zero to trillion and beyond (in System 1).

Pronunciations (audio files) are given in Table 5.

Open This Table as PDF

Some round numbers in this system are shown in Table 4.

Table 4: Round Numbers in System 1

Pronunciations (audio files) are given in tables further below.

In the table above, the numbers are divided into 4 groups according to the Korean logic.  You may have noticed that the English words that serve as grand units (million, billion, etc.) appear out of register with the group divisions in the figure.  As you will see in Figure 1 below, there is a major difference between the Korean and English numbering systems.  In English, the word "thousand" is a grand unit.  Numbers larger than a thousand are expressed as multiples of a thousand (one thousand, ten thousand, hundred thousand...).  Then, at 1,000,000 (which is one thousand-fold greater than 1,000), another grand unit, "million", is introduced.  The word "million" remains as the grand unit until the number hits one billion.  In this manner, the grand unit for large numbers changes in thousand-fold intervals in English.

There is nothing unusual about the Korean word "chun", which means 1,000 – it is a direct counterpart of the English word "thousand".  The situation, however, soon diverges.  In Korean, a new word ("mahn", meaning 10,000) is introduced at 10,000.  From 10,000 and up, the grand unit changes in 10,000-fold intervals (not 1,000-fold).  Thus, in Korean, there is no specific word for "million".  One million is simply referred to as "hundred mahn" (100 times 10,000), and ten million is "thousand mahn" (1,000 times 10,000), and so on.  At 100,000,000, another grand unit "uck" begins to be used. The difference is illustrated in Figure 1.  (This issue concerns System 1 only, as System 2 is not used for large numbers.)

Figure 1: Progression of Grand Units

Commas in Numbers
Koreans do use commas in numbers.  However, they consider the use of commas a Western practice, and for this reason, they put the commas in the Western way (as a “thousand” separator).  In other words, the commas have no correlation with the Korean counting units beyond the number 9,999.

Composition Practice

0 - 100 Range

Now, let's practice mixing and matching numbers in this system.  The component words (1 - 10) are shown again in Table 5 so that you don’t have to scroll up. And you can play the sound by clicking on the speaker icon.

Table 5: Component Words

In English, the verbal expression for 3,000 is a composite of “three” and “thousand”; 300 is a composite of “three” and “hundred”.   The expression for 30, however, is not a composite (“three ten”), because there is a separate word for it (“thirty”).   In Korean, 30 is “three ten” (a composite); 40 is “four ten”, and so on.  Thus, 33 is “three ten three”, and 47 is “four ten seven”.

Table 6: Numbers in the 11 - 99 Range

You now know all the components and rules to count from 0 - 99 in System 1.

100 - 1,000 Range

Let’s move on to the 100 - 1,000 range.  The first number, 100, is somewhat special, as there are two ways to pronounce it, “hundred” or “one hundred”, as in English.  The simpler form, “hundred”, is more natural in most contexts.  The same is also true for 1,000, 10,000, etc.

Table 7: Hundreds

(The pronunciation of the Korean word for 100 is very similar to that of the English word “bag”.)
(The vowel sound /u/ in “chun” is similar to the vowel in the English word “bun”.)

Now that we know the hundreds, we can combine them with smaller numbers to make non-round numbers in this range.  Some examples are shown in Table 8.

Hereinafter in this article, the rarely-used “one hundred” or “one thousand” expressions will not be included in tables; only the preferred simpler forms, “hundred” and “thousand”, will be shown in number combinations.

Table 8: Numbers in the 100 - 999 Range

1,000 - 10,000 Range

We can now explore even larger numbers, which are particularly important for understanding Korean business documents.  Since the exchange rate for the Korean currency, Won, fluctuates around 1,000 Won to 1 U.S. Dollar, monetary amounts mentioned in Korean documents tend to be large.  An average car may cost tens of millions of Won, and the price of a small condominium could easily be in the range of hundreds of millions.  South Korean government’s 2019 budget was 469 trillion Won.

But there are no new rules you need to learn to count very large numbers.  If you understood the underlying patterns in the above examples, you can easily compose numbers to one trillion and beyond.

Let's compose some numbers in the 1,000 - 10,000 range.  The word for “thousand” is “chun” in Korean.  And, as we have learned in Figure 1 above, the Korean language has a special word for 10,000, which is pronounced “mahn”.

Table 9: Korean Words for 1,000 & 10,000

Let's begin with numbers rounded at the thousands, which progress with the same basic pattern as we saw earlier.

Table 10: Thousands

To compose other numbers in this range, simply add hundreds and lower numbers as we have learned so far.  Some examples are in Table 11.

Table 11: Examples up to 10,000

10,000 - Hundred Million Range

Let's now explore numbers from 10,001 up to one hundred million.  When dealing with numbers in this range, it is important to be reminded that there is no specific word for "million" in Korean.  Millions are expressed as multiples of "mahn" (10,000), until another unit is introduced at one hundred million.  Also recall that the grand unit changes in ten-thousand fold intervals (not thousand-fold intervals).  To see these points yourself, pay special attention to the words that precede "mahn" in Table 12 – those are multipliers of "mahn".  (In this and the following tables, the word "mahn" is written in red to make it stand out for first-time learners.)

Table 12: Numbers Rounded at the Ten-Thousands
(in the 10,000 - 99,000,000 Range)

This is probably a good juncture to mention that there is a minor typographical convention in Korean.  When writing a large number in Korean, a space should be placed after the word "mahn".  This gives the reader a pause, in a manner consistent with the underlying logic (grand unit progression).  However, Korean business documents you get to see may or may not have such spaces.  While newspapers editors and book publishers adhere to the rule, many ordinary business people may not be aware of it.

Now, let’s make some numbers in this range, rounded at the thousands.

Table 13: Numbers Rounded at the Thousands
(in the 10,000 - 99,000,000 Range)

How about non-round numbers in this range?  We will begin with one of the numbers from the above table (83,752,000) as a backbone and add smaller numbers to it. 

Table 14: Examples in the Tens of Millions Range

Hundred Million to Numbers Close to a Trillion

When the number reaches 100,000,000, a new grand unit ("uck") is introduced.

Table 15: Korean Word for 100,000,000

(The vowel sound /u/ in “uck” is similar to the vowel in the English word “but”.)

Table 16: Numbers Rounded at the Hundreds of Millions

Random examples of non-round numbers in this range are in Table 17.

Table 17: Examples up to Hundreds of Millions

One Trillion and Beyond

As the grand unit changes in ten-thousand fold intervals in Korean, the next unit is 1,000,000,000,000, which is 10,000 times greater than "uck".  This unit is "jo".  It is a direct counterpart of the English word "trillion".

Table 18: Korean Word for "Trillion"

(The sound of “jo” is similar to the first syllable of “Joseph”.)

Some examples of the numbers in this range are in Table 19.

Table 19: Numbers Beyond One Trillion

Korean Numbers: SYSTEM 2

Composition Practice

The component words of this system are shown in Table 20.  Being the more ancient system, System 2 is deeply integral to the Korean language, and the endings of some numbers change depending on the context.

In this system, a number can be spoken (and written) in two different ways – the noun form or the adjective form.  Suppose you saw a group of geese while driving by a farm. You start counting them, "One! Two! Three!.... ".  By saying the numbers in this way, at least in the Korean logic, you are treating the numbers simply as integers, because each number is not followed by any unit or counted object.  For such numbers (mathematical integers) you should use the noun form (stand-alone form).  On the other hand, if you counted the geese by saying “1 mahree, 2 mahree, 3 mahree ...” ("mahree" is a Korean unit for counting animals), then the numbers should be in the adjective form, because each number is a modifier of what follows (“mahree”). 

This noun / adjective consideration applies to System 2 only.  In System 1, there is only one form for each number, which you can use as either a stand-alone form or a modifier of the word that follows.

Table 20: Component Words of System 2

(* In addition to the ones shown in the table, there are additional adjective forms, which become the preferred forms in certain contexts.  The additional forms are not included in the table, since the forms shown here are perfectly adequate for all contexts, especially when spoken by foreigners.)

Examples of non-round numbers in this system are in Table 21.  Note that the noun / adjective choice concerns the last syllable only, and all other syllables remain in the "noun form" even when the number is used as an adjective.

Table 21: Examples of Numbers in System 2

Korean Numbers: Composite System (Systems 1 + 2)

For numbers 100 and up, System 1 is the form most often used in modern times.  Some people, however, perceive System 1 as tinged with foreign (Chinese) colors and not sufficiently Korean, even though the system has been in use in Korea for more than 2,000 years.  Korean linguists and teachers of the "purist" type recommend that, in conversational Korean at least, numbers should be vernacularized (“Koreanized”) as much as possible. 

The way to vernacularize a large number (which is in System 1 before vernacularization) is converting the portion lower than 100 to System 2.  The resulting number will be a “chimera” (composite); it will be partly System 1 (the portion larger than 100) and partly System 2 (lower than 100).

Examples are in Table 22.  In the table, the black portions are based on System 1 and the red portions are System 2 (or vernacular) numbers. 

Such composite forms are often seen in scripts meant to be listener-friendly.  For example, most Korean newscasters take the effort to say all numbers in the vernacularized (composite) form.  Ordinary people, however, nowadays prefer to use the straight System 1 for large numbers, because it is cumbersome to make composites and they don't see foreignness in System 1 any longer.

Table 22: Large Numbers Vernacularized