Sino-Korean Numbers
일: 1
이: 2
삼: 3
사: 4
오: 5
육: 6
칠: 7
팔: 8
구: 9
십: 10
There are the only numbers you need to know for making double-digit numbers ONLY. Making double-digit numbers in Korean is quite easy!
십(10)+일(1)= 십일 (11)
십(10)+ 칠(7)= 십칠 (17)
If you wanted to say 23, this is how you would write it:
이십삼
이(2)•십(10)+삼(3)= 이십삼 (23)
So, it’s like multiplying the first 2 numbers and adding the third!
Another example:
칠십팔= 78
칠(7)•십(10)+팔(8)= 칠십팔 (78)
To say one hundred, you need to add 백
백= 100
so,
사백= 400
구백= 900
But what if you wanted to say something like 657? Well just add how you would write 57 in Korean to 600!
육백오십칠= 657
육백(600)+오십칠(57)= 657
890= 팔백구십
524=오백이십사
If you wanted to say one thousand, you need 천
천= 1000
so....
삼천= 3,000
이천= 2,000
If I wanted to say, 4,325 it would be:
사천삼백이십오
사천(4,000)+삼백(300)+이십오(25)= 사천삼백이십오(4,325)
However, getting into bigger numbers such as 10,000 & beyond can get tricky...so here are all the values you can use to look back at:
십: 10
백: 100
천: 1,000
만: 10,000
십만: 100,000
백만: 1,000,000
천만: 10,000,000
억: 100,000,000
십억: 1,000,000,000
백억: 10,000,000,000
천억: 100,000,000,000
조: 1,000,000,000,000
First, I would memorize that 만 has 4 zeros, 억 has 8 zeros, and 조 has 12 zeros, as this will be helpful later on
You should also know that Korean numbers go by 4’s, unlike English which goes by 3’s... so, if you wanted to write the number 523,456 in Korean, you can rearrange the apostrophes to make it easier for yourself to visualize, like this:
52,3456
The first thing you need to do is determine which value is first:
오십이만= 52,0000 (520,000) , 52,0000 is easier to use due to the fact that you’re using 52 which is 오십이 and you just add 만, which is 10,000 so it equals to 52,0000.
As for the remaining numbers, 3456, you just treat it like a regular 3,456. So you would get 삼천사백오십육.
All together 52,3456= 오십이만삼천사백오십육 (523,456)
Each time you add a zero, you go up in value so the 십 will go to a 백 and the 백 will go to the 천, and the 천 will go to the next value, whether it’s 억, 조 etc.
If I added zeros to the previous number, it would look like this: 52,345,600
1) Rearrange the apostrophes so they go by 4’s: 5234,5600
2) Decide what range it’s in, whether it’s a 만, 억 or 조 number- this is still in the 만 range, as it hasn’t reached 8 potential zeros which would be 억.
3) Since the number is in the ‘thousands place’ of the 만 numbers it’s 천만.
4) Write 5234 as a regular 천 number, but just add 만 at the end of it! So the first half of the number will look like this:
오천이백삼십사만= 5234,0000
5) Now do the second half of the number (5600)like a regular thousand number in Korean:
오천육백
6) Now add them together!
오천이백삼십사만오천육백= 5234,5600 (52,345,600)
Let’s try an 억 number...
867,234,555
1) Rearrange the apostrophes :
8,6723,4555
2) Since this number has 8 potential zeros, it is an 억 number, but it’s only in the ‘ones’ place, so the first value before the first apostrophe will simply be: 팔억
3) Now, the next 4 numbers before the last apostrophe are 만 numbers, so just do what we did in the previous example! Treat 6723 as its own thousand number but add 만 at the end, so it would be:
육천칠백이십삼만
4) Now, just treat 4555 as a regular thousand number so it would be:
사천오백오십오
5) Now, add them all together! The final answer is:
팔억육천칠백이십삼만사천오백오십오= 8,6723,4555 (867,234,555)
One more example!
We’ll use the number 9,267,887,453
1) Rearrange the apostrophes (ik it’s repetitive ㅎㅎ)
92,6788,7453
2) Since 92 is in the tenths place of the 억 number , it would be: 구십이억
3) 6788, is a 만 number so just do but we’ve been doing in the previous examples!
so it would be: 육천칠백필십팔만
4) The last number set 7453, so just write it regularly!
칠천사백오십삼
5) Add all of them together!
구십이억육천칠백팔십팔만칠천사백오십삼= 92,6788,7453 (9,267,887,453)
i hope this helped some of you who were still confused! and hopefully it wasn’t too confusing, as i’m not very good at explaining things ㅎㅎ
