On this post, I wanted to focus more on the Native Korean numerals which is surprisingly up to 99 only. As mentiond in the Korean Number section for numbers above 99 the Sino-Korean are used. The formula is also provided in that page.
There are peculiarities in using the Native Korean numbers. 하나 (hana), 둘 (dul), 셋 (set) and 넷 (net) which are 1..2..3…4 respectively drops the last sound before the word it counts. Note that the character ㅅ in 셋 (set) and 넷 (net) are pronounced as ‘t’ when it occurs as final consonant. As an example, instead of saying 하나 잭 hana chaek , you will only hear ha chaek which means one book. This goes the same for 둘, 셋 and 넷 which will be written and pronounced du, se and ne. This rule applies to count number 20 스물 (seumul) which drop the sound ‘l’ as well when used right before the word that its counting.
Furthermore, 셋 (3) and 넷 (4) are pronounced as sok and nek respectively if the noun or counter it follows begin with ㄷor ㅈ.
There are also counters that is being used along with Native Korean numbers. Counters are like identifiers of the item being counted, its hard to tell the counterpart for in some there is non. Like we can say 3 chickens or 3 head of chicken in English but in Korean its just 3 chicken –>닭 세 마리 (dal se mari) literally this is chicken (닭) 3 (세, remember the rule drop the last sound). Now 마리 (mari) is actually a counter or classfier. This is something which do not have counter part in English maybe comparable to school as in school of fish or herd of cows etc. This classifier is used for counting animals and fish.
There are a lot of classifiers or counters that goes with Native Korean numerals I will discuss this in my next post.
It Started with Hangul 