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LEVEL 2 LESSON 9

In Korean, there are many words that are used as counting units. In English, you can just say
the number and then the word for what you are counting (i.e. a person, two cats, three houses,
etc), but in Korean, you need to use separate counters for different subjects. You can compare
the Korean counters to the English words that are used for counting things that are uncountable nouns (i.e. bread, water, butter, etc).

** Since there are too many counters to remember all at once, it is better to learn them one by
one as you practice using certain words.

Example

English: number + noun

- a car, two pencils, three books, four people, etc

Korean: noun + number + counter

- pencil + one + counter for pencil
- student + three + counter for people

There are literally hundreds of counters in the Korean language, but not all of them are always
used. As long as they understand each other, some Korean people just use the simplest and
easiest counter they remember to count certain words and it does not confuse anyone. For example, in Korean, a pencil is [yeon-pi] and the counter for pencils is [ ja-ru]. The word
[ ja-ru] is also used for counting pens, bags containing grains, and also knives. So instead
of using the word all the time for , many Korean people just use the general counter
for things, which is [gae].

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TalkToMeInKorean.com - Free Korean Lesson Notes

LEVEL 2 LESSON 9

[yeon-pil han ja-ru] = one pencil

[yeon-pil han gae] = one pencil

This does NOT always work for all counters. Some counters that are very commonly used are
almost never replaced with . For example, the counter for cars is [dae], and it is never
replaced with [gae] just to simplify it. In other words, changing to is
okay, but changing to is not okay and considered incorrect.

This is only because the counter is much more frequently used than the counter , but
basically, as a learner of the Korean language, it is much better to be able to use an incorrect
counter and be given feedback rather than choose not to say anything.

In this lesson, remember these two most frequently used counters,

and .

[gae] in Korean means a dog, but when its used as a counter, it is used for counting
things and objects.

[myeong] is used for counting people.

And when you use counters, most of the time, they are used along with native Korean numbers.

Numbers + [gae] (counter for things)

1 = -->
2 = -->
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TalkToMeInKorean.com - Free Korean Lesson Notes

LEVEL 2 LESSON 9
3 = -->
4 = -->
** Remember this irregularity rule for the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 20?
5 = -->
6 = -->
7 = -->
8 = -->
9 = -->
10 = -->

From 11 to 20
, , , , , , , , ,

From 21 to 30
, , , , , , , ,
, ,

Example
one apple = [sa-gwa] + 1 + [gae] = [sa-gwa han gae]
two stones = [dol] + 2 + [gae] = [dol du gae]
five balls = [gong] + 5 + [gae] = [gong da-seot gae]
how many (things) = [myeot] + [gae] = [myeot gae]

Now, for people, you use the counter [myeong].

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TalkToMeInKorean.com - Free Korean Lesson Notes

LEVEL 2 LESSON 9
one person = [han myeong]
two students = [hak-saeng] + 2 + [myeong] = [hak-saeng du myeong]
three friends = [chin-gu] + 3 + [myeong] = [chin-gu se myeong]
how many (people) = [myeot] + [myeong] = [myeot myeong]

For people, however, the word for people or person itself, which is [sa-ram] is used
as well, when you are just generally referring to a relatively small number of people, without
specifying who they are.

Example
Q: How many people are there?
A: There are 10 people.

= Q: ? [myeot myeong i-sseo-yo?]

= A: 10 . [yeol-myeong i-sseo-yo.]

= Q: ? [myeot sa-ram i-sseo-yo?]

= A: . [eol sa-ram i-sseo-yo.] (This is unnatural.)
--> A: . [du sa-ram i-sseo-yo.] (two people - this is okay.)

In case you want to learn about some more counters in advance, here are a few commonly
used ones.

[byeong] = bottles
[ma-ri] = animals
[dae] = cars, punches
[gwon] = books
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TalkToMeInKorean.com - Free Korean Lesson Notes

LEVEL 2 LESSON 9
[ jang] = paper, pages, tickets

Sample sentences by our friends

: .
[a-jum-ma gim-chi-jji-gae han gae ju-se-yo.]
= Maam, give me one kimchi stew.
[ jji-gae] = stew

: .
[so-ju-do han byeong ju-se-yo.]
= Give me a bottle of soju, as well.

: .
[da meok-go se gae na-ma-sseo-yo.]
= I ate everything and there are three left.
[da] = all
[nam-da] = to remain, to be left

: ?
[sa-tang myeot gae meo-geul-lae?]
= How many candies do you want to eat?
[sa-tang] = candy
[meok-da] = to eat

This PDF is to be used along with the MP3 audio lesson available at TalkToMeInKorean.com.
Please feel free to share TalkToMeInKoreans free Korean lessons and PDF files with anybody who
is studying Korean. If you have any questions or feedback, visit TalkToMeInKorean.com.