하나, 둘, 셋, 넷 감자 {potato}... There are two sets of numbers in Korea, the native Korean and the Sino-Korean Numbers. Sino-Korean numbers are borrowed from Chinese, so if you are chinese you'll probably notice the similarities in the pronunciation.
Generally speaking, for expression involving dates, money, foreign loanwords, minutes, seconds and counting beyond 99 Sino-Korean numbers are used otherwise its the native Korean numbers. You might be wondering why some numbers are skipped in both numeral systems, this is because there are certain patterns to achieve the numbers in between.
1st let look at native korean numbers....Native Korean
11 = 열하나 [yeol-hana] so the formula is 10[열]+1[하나].
31 = 서른하나 [seoleun-hana]
This is the reason why after the number 10 only numbers in multiples of 10 are provided up to 90. So you have to memorize at least 18 numbers in Native Korean.
Sino-Korean
32 = 삼십이 [sam-ship-i] so the formula is 3[삼] X 10 [십] + 2 [이].
If you want to count things or people, you have to include a "classifier". Classifier are put after the number and are similar to english such as a bar(of chocolate), a roll(of film). The most common classifier is 개 [gae] {thing}, but when you count people you need to use either 명 [myeong] {plain} or 분 [bun] {honorific}.
For example...
펜 열여섯 개 [pen yeol-yeoseot gae] {16 ("ten-six") pens}
저는 언니가 세명 있어요. [jeo-neun eonni-ga se-myeong isseoyo] {I have three older sister}
note : the spelling of the numbers one to four changes slightly when a classifier is used,
하나>>한,
돌>>두,
셋>>세,
넷>>네.
next time we'll explore more on numbers in other applications e.g money, dates etc..so be sure to check out for updates..
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