Sino-Korean Numbers

Korean has two number systems. We'll start with Sino-Korean numbers, which come from Chinese characters. These are used for dates, money, phone numbers, minutes, and more.

1 to 10

Number	Hangul	Romanization	English
1	일	il	one
2	이	i	two
3	삼	sam	three
4	사	sa	four
5	오	o	five
6	육	yuk	six
7	칠	chil	seven
8	팔	pal	eight
9	구	gu	nine
10	십	sip	ten

Larger units

Number	Hangul	Romanization	English
100	백	baek	hundred
1,000	천	cheon	thousand
10,000	만	man	ten thousand
0	영 / 공	yeong / gong	zero

To build a number, just read each place value in order. For example, 11 is '십일' (10+1), and 25 is '이십오' (2×10+5).

Dropping '일' before 백, 천, and 만

You drop '일' (1) in front of 백, 천, and 만. So 100 is just '백' rather than '일백', and 10,000 is simply '만'. The lower place values, however, stay as they are: 110 is '백십'.

💡 Tip: Unlike English, Korean has a dedicated unit for 10,000 ('만'). It groups large numbers by 10,000 rather than 1,000, so 100,000 is read '십만' (10 × 10,000).

Where Sino-Korean numbers are used

Sino-Korean numbers are used for dates, money, phone numbers, minutes, bus numbers, floors, page numbers, and more. For example, you say '삼 층' (3rd floor) and '십 쪽' (page 10).