Native Korean and Sino-Korean Counters

Counting things and people in Korean is slightly different with most western languages in that a "counter" word needs to be added after the number; the counter to use depends on the nature of the object or person talked about. The list below lists all the counters encountered in most situations.

There are two types of counters in Korean: counters that are used with native Korean numbers (하나, 둘, 셋...) and counters that are used with Sino-Korean numbers (일, 이, 삼...); the associations between each counter and the corresponding numeral system need to be memorized (counters used with native Korean numbers can have a Chinese origin, and counters used with Sino-Korean numbers can have a Korean origin).

  Time and Date Notes    
         
       
minutes      
seconds      
year      
월/개월 month      
day   하루/이틀/사흘/나흘/다샛  
week      
         
  outside stuff      
      차 한 대 cars, anything electronic
         
      집 한 채 houses (not buildings)
      book, bundle of pages
         

빌딩 2개가 있어요.