Korean Lessons ᚛ Level 2 - Korean for Beginners #1 (Lessons 31 to 60) ᚛ Lesson 37 - Sino-Korean numbers up to infinity

Sino-Korean numbers up to infinity

If Korean numbers let you count from 1 to 99, Sino-Korean numbers can go all the way to infinity.

In the previous chapter, we saw how to count from 0 to 9999 in Korean with Sino-Korean numbers. In this course, we will see how to count to infinity.

Count to infinity in Korean

To understand how to count well in Korean, we must remember how we count in English. Counting in our language is already very natural, but observe:

• from 0 to 999, everything is normal
• from 1000 to 999,999, we have a key word called "thousand". To say 35,000, we say 35 "thousand". To say 428,000, we say 428 "thousand".
• from 1,000,000 to 999,999,999, we have a new key word called "million". To say 49,000,000, we say 49 "million". To say 192,000,000, we say 192 "million".

So, we have groups of three digits:

• 3 digits to express numbers from 0 to 999
• 3 digits for thousands
• 3 digits for millions
• 3 digits for billions
• … etc.

Finally, knowing how to count to infinity in English is just knowing how to count from 0 to 999 and how to add "thousand", "million", "billions" … etc., in the right place.

It's the same in Korean! With one exception: the groups don't have 3 digits, but 4! So, we just need to divide the number into groups of 4 digits, and add the right key word.

• from 0 to 9,999, everything is just as we've seen it up till now.
• from 10,000 to 99,999,999, we use the group
  • 만
• from 100,000,000 to 999,999,999,999, we use the group
  • 억

So :

• 62,345, cut 62,345, will be of the form:
  • 6 만 2345
• 9,876,543,210, cut 9,876,543,210, will be of the form:
  • 98 억 7654 만 3210

Notes:

• 10,000, cut 10,000, is pronounced 만 by itself, even though there is a 1 in the group of 만, it is not pronounced.
• Pay attention, however, since 100,000,000, cut 100,000,000, is still pronounced 일 억.

Numerous examples for you to practice with:

And after 999,999,999,999?

Exercises

Podcasts in Korean specially designed for beginners, to learn Korean by really listening to it from the very beginning.

You’re starting to learn Korean (or you already know the basics), but as soon as you listen to spoken Korean, everything suddenly feels too fast?
The words blend together, the pronunciation escapes you, and you feel like “real Korean” is very different from what you learned in textbooks.

That’s normal!
Listening comprehension is the most difficult part for all beginners.

Learn more

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