How to Count to Ten in Korean

Learning to count from 1 to 10 in Korean can be challenging for a native English speaker. Some of the sounds are difficult to recreate for the English speaking tongue. To make matters even more difficult, there are two ways to count from 1 to 10 in Korean. Native Korean is used to count things, while Sino Korean is used to count time. Americans commonly count to 10 in Native Korean while practicing Korean martial arts like Tae Kwon Do or Hapkido.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Count the number 1 by saying "hana," pronounced "HA-nah" in Native Korean or "il," pronounced "ill," in Sino Korean.

2. Count the number 2 by saying "dul," pronounced "dool" in Native Korean or "i," pronounced "ee," in Sino Korean.

3. Count the number 3 by saying "set," pronounced "set" in Native Korean or "sam," pronounced "sam," in Sino Korean.

4. Count the number 4 by saying "net," pronounced "net" in Native Korean or "sa," pronounced "sah," in Sino Korean.

5. Count the number 5 by saying "da-sul," pronounced "DA-sut" in Native Korean or "o," pronounced "oh," in Sino Korean.

6. Count the number 6 by saying "yuh-seot," pronounced "YA-sut" in Native Korean or "yuk," pronounced "yook," in Sino Korean.

7. Count the number 7 by saying "il-gop," pronounced "EEL-gope" in Native Korean or "ch'il," pronounced "CH-eel," in Sino Korean.

8. Count the number 8 by saying "yuh-deol," pronounced "YA-dool" in Native Korean or "p'al," pronounced "P-all," in Sino Korean.

9. Count the number 9 by saying "ah-hop," pronounced "AH-hope" in Native Korean or "ku," pronounced "goo," in Sino Korean.

10. Count the number 10 by saying "yeol," pronounced "yool" in Native Korean or "sip," pronounced "ship," in Sino Korean.

Tips & Warnings

• It is very difficult to appreciate and reproduce the phonetics of Korean by just looking at the printed words. Find a native Korean speaker and ask them to count from 1 to 10 in both Native Korean and Sino Korean. Compare the way the words sound to the way they are written. This is the only way to get the sounds exactly right.

Resources

• Emerging Dragon
• Punch and Kick
• Crowded Passport