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Numbers in Korean

How do you read numbers in Korean?

How do you read numbers in Korean? Korea has two number systems that is ‘China System’ and ‘Native Korean (Korea System)’.
Today, we’re going to learn ‘China System’ number.

Let’s first study from 1 to 9.

Number KOREAN ENGLISH
1 ONE
2 TWO
3 THREE
4 FOUR
5 FIVE
6 SIX
7 SEVEN
8 EIGHT
9 NINE

Next, let’s learn a little larger numbers.

Number KOREAN ENGLISH
10 TEN
100 ONE HUNDRED
1,000 ONE THOUSAND
10,000 TEN THOUSAND
100,000 십만 ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND
1,000,000 백만 ONE MILLION
10,000,000 천만 TEN MILLION
100,000,000 일억 ONE HUNDRED MILLION
1,000,000,000 십억 ONE BILLION

Now, let’s read through the numbers in Korean.

For example, how would you read ‘20’ in Korean? 20 in Korean is literally ‘이십 (two-ten)’, so, read ‘2(이)’ first, then ‘10(십)’. 30 is ‘삼십 (three-ten)’ so, read ‘3(삼)’ first, then ‘10(십)’. Likewise , We read the number ‘200’ as ‘이백’, ‘2,000’ as ‘이천’, and ‘20,000’ as ‘이만’ and so on.

Number KOREAN ENGLISH
20 이십 (TWO, TEN) TWENTY
30 삼십 (THREE, TEN) THIRTY
200 이백 (TWO, HUNDRED) TWO HUNDRED
2,000 이천 ((TWO, THOUSAND) TWO THOUSAND
20,000 이만 ((TWO, TEN-THOUSAND) TWENTY THOUSAND

Let’s read a little harder numbers this time.

For example, how would you read ‘59’ in Korean? you should read the number ‘59’ as ‘오십구’. also you should read ‘361’ as ‘삼백육십일’.

Number KOREAN ENGLISH
59 오십구 (FIVE, TEN, NINE) FIFTY NINE
361 삼백육십일 (THREE, HUNDRED, SIXTY, ONE) THREE HUNDRED SIXTY ONE

However, if the number of ‘1’ is combined with ‘10’, ‘100’, ‘1,000’ and ‘10, 000’, you do not need to read ‘1(일)’. For example, ‘100’ is not ‘일 백‘ but ‘백’. So, ‘31,000’ should be read as ‘삼만 천’.

Number KOREAN ENGLISH
100 (HUNDRED) ONE HUNDRED
1,000 (THOUSAND) ONE THOUSAND
31,000 삼만천 (THREE, TEN-THOUSAND, THOUSAND) THIRTY – ONE THOUSAND

Did you understand it? If you didn’t, please ask more questions in the comment section down below.

After you read this article, you will be able to better enjoy This week lessons.

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Introduction to Korean 2

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