# Korean terms and hangul



## Kacey

There are quite a few questions that come up about the use of Korean terms and hangul in the context of the martial arts.  Since these discussions come up fairly frequently, some of them are being compiled and/or linked in this thread.

What Korean terminology (if any) do you use in your Korean MA class?

What is the difference between "kwon" and "kwan"?

How do you identify different dan ranks?

How do you read hangul?  More here 

What exactly is the difference between chigi and jirugi, and how do you know when to use which term?

Specific terminology in Korean, with names of text sources.  More terminology here 

English to Korean translation (off the MT site - NOTE:  must have a browser plug-in that will show hangul, or all you'll get are ????)

TaeKwon-Do specific Korean terminology, transliterated (written phonetically in English)

"Respect" in Korean

Proper pronunciation of hangul; another here

History of hangul; more here 

Korean terminology game; and another

Tang Soo Do terminology discussion

An Introduction to Korean (off the MT site)


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## exile

Kacey, this is _brilliant_the single source we've all been hoping for. Thanks very, very much for putting this together... makes me think we should have a `reference books' library on MT where this kind of encyclopaedic coverage can go.


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## Kacey

exile said:


> Kacey, this is _brilliant_&#8212;the single source we've all been hoping for. Thanks very, very much for putting this together... makes me think we should have a `reference books' library on MT where this kind of encyclopaedic coverage can go.



Well, it was your idea, exile... thanks for mentioning it!


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## exile

Kacey said:


> Well, it was your idea, exile... thanks for mentioning it!



True, but I didn't expect to see it come about so soon, or so thoroughly! This probably has all the info that anyone would ever need... great stuff, _really!_


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## terryl965

Yes Kacey this is great Thanks


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## wade

Come on Kacey, give me a break will ya? I can only hit that damn button so many times in a given day then it's starts to get nasty with me, BUT! still, thanks, great post.


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## Laurentkd

Great post Kacey!!
Thanks!


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## Shaderon

Fantastic Kacey!!!   and a brilliant idea Exile!!!


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## chrismay101

Cheers kacey great post!


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## jim777

Awesome stuff, thanks very much! Does anyone know the pronunciation of the Korean words for thirty, forty, fifty, etc? I can only ever find the Hangul characters without any pronunciation. Most of the online resources stop at ten. 

Thanks in advance!

jim


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## e ship yuk

jim777 said:


> Awesome stuff, thanks very much! Does anyone know the pronunciation of the Korean words for thirty, forty, fifty, etc? I can only ever find the Hangul characters without any pronunciation. Most of the online resources stop at ten.
> 
> Thanks in advance!
> 
> jim


 
Koreans use two different number systems, the native Korean numbers (hana, dul, set, etc) and the Sino-Korean numbers, based mostly on Chinese (il, e, sam, etc). Each is used for different things.

Wikipedia has a good article on Korean numbers.

In the Sino-Korean system, counting up to 99 is really easy - if you can count to 10, you can count to 99. The numbers from 1 to 10 have their own names. From 11 to 19, the numbers are formed by adding a number to ship, the word for ten - ship il is 11, ship ee is 12, ship sam is 13, etc. Numerals above these first tell you how many 10s are involved - ee ship is 20, sam ship is 30 - and then add the 1s - ee ship il is 21, ee ship ee is 22, and my user name, although spelled slightly differently, e ship yuk, is 26. The Tang Soo Do form E Ship Sa Bo is named in this way - Two Tens Four, and I believe Bo is step. So, 24 steps.

The native Korean numbers have their own words for 20, 30, etc, but otherwise form their numbers the same. I'm less familiar with them, but again the Wikipedia article does a good job of detailing them.


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## jim777

that's what I'm talking about! 

thanks!


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## Dave Leverich

A question from a friend on another forum that might get a more informed response here perhaps...

"I just need to clarify some issues of Korean semantics and phonology.

BTW, I'm a layperson as to linguistics; and although I do know some of the general terms (in a not-too-precise manner), I would prefer explanations that are geared toward non-experts.

Thanks. 
_________________
eltenoch

The faucalized (an "esoteric" linguistics term that describes the phoneme's production) consonants in Korean are those that are written as "doubled" to their "modal" or "regular" counterparts; ex., K/G, T/D, P/B, vs. K', T', P'. Most books geared to the layperson would just describe these as the "tense" consonants."

"Thanks Dave, Very Happy

So I guess asking help in how to articulate the Korean faucalized consonants is out of the question 
_________________
eltenoch"


Any help from our more enlightened linguists perhaps? I know I could use help with these as well.


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## MBuzzy

&#50676; - 10 yeol - said: yool
&#49828;&#47932; - 20 seu-mul - said: soo muel (ue - like in sue)
&#49436;&#47480; - 30 seo-reun - said:  saw roon
&#47560;&#55124; - 40 ma heun - said: ma hoon
&#49776; - 50 shwin - said: shwin
&#50696;&#49692; - 60 ye sun - said: yay suen (ue - like in sue)
&#51068;&#55124; - 70 i rheun - said: ee roon
&#50668;&#46304; - 80 yeo deun - said: yaw doon
&#50500;&#55124; - 90 a heun - said: ah hoon

Here's the tricky part....In Korean, there is no r or l.  It is the same letter, depending on where it falls in the word, it can sound different, but if you try to go somewhere in between the two, you will get it.  It is tough to explain unless you read hangul, but if I used an L, then it sounds closer to an L......if I used an r, it sounds closer to a t than anything.....hard to explain.


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## MBuzzy

oh yeah....that's the OTHER number system.  The Korean based number system that starts with hana, tul, set, net, etc...


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## zDom

English has two sets, too.

Cardinal (one, two, three) and ordinal (first, second, third).

I believe (please correct me if I'm wrong) that "hanah, tul, set" are used as cardinal numbers and "il, ee, sam, sah" are used as ordinal.


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## Kacey

zDom said:


> English has two sets, too.
> 
> Cardinal (one, two, three) and ordinal (first, second, third).
> 
> I believe (please correct me if I'm wrong) that "hanah, tul, set" are used as cardinal numbers and "il, ee, sam, sah" are used as ordinal.



That is my understanding as well - for both English and Korean.


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## e ship yuk

zDom said:


> English has two sets, too.
> 
> Cardinal (one, two, three) and ordinal (first, second, third).
> 
> I believe (please correct me if I'm wrong) that "hanah, tul, set" are used as cardinal numbers and "il, ee, sam, sah" are used as ordinal.



Pretty much.  The Sino-Korean numbers are also used to tell time, and can be used to denote someone's age.  The English ordinals are pretty similar, in most cases, to their cardinals, also.  The Korean, not so much.


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## MBuzzy

Actually, that is not exactly correct - and I will be the first to say that I don't fully understand the Korean number system.

Both the Sino-Korean (Chinese based; il, ee, sam, sa, oh) and Pure-Korean (hana, tul, set, net, tasot) systems are Cardinal systems, i.e. both are equivalent to 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.  But they are used for different things.  The pure Korean numbers are used for Counting.  For example, in class, when counting repetitions, you use hana, tul, set, net.  But when counting things and expressing ideas....years, months, days, currency, you use Sino-Korean....but not always.  It is VERY confusing...in fact, Koreans don't always get it right and will sometimes interchange.  

Telling time.......You won't belive this.......you use the Korean system for hours and the Sino Korean system for minutes. 

You ALSO need to use countwords for everything....Even in telling time.  Depending on what you're counting, there will be different words.  For example, when counting cups, you must say chan following the number...for people, you must say myong, and those are in addition to the word for what you are counting (so it would be "people 4 persons") 

The ordinal system is completely separate and also has two sets of numbers.....and those words and longer and more difficult.


OH!  And get this.....there are no Pure Korean numbers above 99, so after that, it is ALSO Sino-Korean.


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## MBuzzy

A little more....to show just how confusing this gets, here is 1-10 in both systems of Ordinal numbers...These things take FOREVER to type out with an English keyboard!!

Sino-Korean
First &#51228; 1&#51032; che irui
Second &#51228; 2&#51032; che iui
Third &#51228; 3&#51032; che samui
Fourth &#51228; 4&#51032;che saui
Fifth &#51228; 5&#51032;che oui
Sixth &#51228; 6&#51032;che yugui
Seventh &#51228; 7&#51032;che chirui
Eighth&#51228; 8&#51032;che parui
Ninth &#51228; 9&#51032;che kuui
Tenth &#51228; 10&#51032;che shipui

Pure Korean
First &#52395; &#48264;&#51704;&#51032; chot pontchaeui
Second &#46160;&#48264;&#51704;&#51032; tu pontchaeui
Third &#49464;&#48264;&#51704;&#51032; se pontchaeui
Fourth &#45348;&#48264;&#51704;&#51032; ne pontchaeui
Fifth &#45796;&#49455;&#48264;&#51704;&#51032; tasot pontchaeui
Sixth &#50668;&#49455;&#48264;&#51704;&#51032; yosot pontchaeui
Seventh &#51068;&#44273; &#48264;&#51704;&#51032; ilgop pontchaeui
Eighth &#50668;&#45919;&#48264;&#51704;&#51032; yodol pontchaeui
Ninth &#50500;&#54857;&#48264;&#51704;&#51032; ahop pontchaeui
Tenth &#50676;&#48264;&#51704;&#51032; yol pontchaeui


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## Shaderon

Mbuzzy, you've just made me decide,.... I'm NOT learning conversational Korean.... they can go *******  lol   That looks SO confusing!


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## MBuzzy

Good choice, it is a crazy language.  The alphabet is simple to read, but understanding the language is really hard.  

When you get into conversational you have to deal with their weird word order (subject, object, verb), plus all of their identifiers, different words for the same thing but only in certain situations........Well, come to think of it, I guess its just as confusing as any other language!!!


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## mjd

WOW, I never figure korean counting out.


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## IcemanSK

Is the written Sino-Korean the same thing as Hanja?


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## MBuzzy

IcemanSK said:


> Is the written Sino-Korean the same thing as Hanja?


 
Iceman - are you referring to the Hangul, pronunciation, or the characters themselves?

Koreans mostly use 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,etc....but I have also seen the Hanja characters (one horizontal line, two horizontal lines, etc) for the numbers.

The term Hanja actually gets a bit confusing in Korea, because it is the Korean word for Kanji....Personally, I get really mixed up how that works.  To the best of my understanding, the two words are used completely interchangably, Kanji in China, Hanja in Korea.  

It is also confusing to me how Koreans actually USE Hanja.  In terms of numbers, I have only seen Hanja used in the older writings where the Chinese characters are being used for the whole thing.  But in academic writings and even some newspapers, a basic knowledge of Hanja characters is necessary.  I was told that the basic Korean high school student learns about 1,000 Hanja characters.


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## IcemanSK

MBuzzy said:


> Iceman - are you referring to the Hangul, pronunciation, or the characters themselves?
> 
> Koreans mostly use 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,etc....but I have also seen the Hanja characters (one horizontal line, two horizontal lines, etc) for the numbers.
> 
> The term Hanja actually gets a bit confusing in Korea, because it is the Korean word for Kanji....Personally, I get really mixed up how that works. To the best of my understanding, the two words are used completely interchangably, Kanji in China, Hanja in Korea.
> 
> It is also confusing to me how Koreans actually USE Hanja. In terms of numbers, I have only seen Hanja used in the older writings where the Chinese characters are being used for the whole thing. But in academic writings and even some newspapers, a basic knowledge of Hanja characters is necessary. I was told that the basic Korean high school student learns about 1,000 Hanja characters.


 

I'm not exactly sure what I'm talking about, honestly. In a wikipedia article that I read had both Hangul (which I recognized as such) & Hanja (which I did not recognize). I'm glad I'm not the only one for whom this is confusing.


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## howard

Hi,

The terms _hanja_ and _kanji_ both refer to Chinese characters.  Hanja refers to the Korean use and pronunciation of Chinese characters.  Kanji refers to the Japanese use and pronunciation of the same characters.

For example, have a look at these Chinese characters.

*&#21512;&#27683;&#36947;*

Koreans would call these hanja, and pronounce them "hapkido".  Japanese would call them kanji, and pronounce them "aikido".


Hope this helps...


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## IcemanSK

howard said:


> Hi,
> 
> The terms _hanja_ and _kanji_ both refer to Chinese characters. Hanja refers to the Korean use and pronunciation of Chinese characters. Kanji refers to the Japanese use and pronunciation of the same characters.
> 
> For example, have a look at these Chinese characters.
> 
> *&#21512;&#27683;&#36947;*
> 
> Koreans would call these hanja, and pronounce them "hapkido". Japanese would call them kanji, and pronounce them "aikido".
> 
> 
> Hope this helps...


 
Yes sir, it does. Thank you.:asian:


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## hwarang_do_adam

that language looks very confusing


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## MBuzzy

Actually, believe it or not, Korean is easier than English.  Less rules, less exceptions, the written language is phoenetic and syllable based....

You can learn to READ (just sound out the words) it easily, learning to speak it and understand it is another story.  The word order is different, so it is harder for an adult's brain to make the switch.


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## hwarang_do_adam

i better start learning japanease because im getting stationed there tommarow


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## MBuzzy

Where will you be in Japan?

I know a lot of people who are either IN Japan or just came from there and not a single one of them spoke a word of Japanese.  Although, I must say, I lived in Korea for a year and at least READING the language can be a big help.  You can at least find familiar words then.  Japanese is much more difficult than Korean to learn to read though....Good Luck!


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## terryl965

MBuzzy said:


> Where will you be in Japan?
> 
> I know a lot of people who are either IN Japan or just came from there and not a single one of them spoke a word of Japanese. Although, I must say, I lived in Korea for a year and at least READING the language can be a big help. You can at least find familiar words then. Japanese is much more difficult than Korean to learn to read though....Good Luck!


 

I agree Japanese is such a complicated language.


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## tkd75

I spent a year at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey learning Korean for the military. It is easy to learn to read, but as MBuzzy said, reading Korean and learning to speak and understand the language are two different things. As for the numbers, I still get confused with them. :hb: And I didn't learn any TKD terms or commands while at DLI. The most they said about TKD was "it's our national sport".

The zKorean site Kacey posted a link to used to have a section on numbers as well.  I guess they took it down.


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## Drakanyst

MBuzzy said:


> &#50676;
> Here's the tricky part....In Korean, there is no r or l.  It is the same letter, depending on where it falls in the word, it can sound different, but if you try to go somewhere in between the two, you will get it.  It is tough to explain unless you read hangul, but if I used an L, then it sounds closer to an L......if I used an r, it sounds closer to a t than anything.....hard to explain.



this has to do with tongue placement! the consonant "ㄹ" is a guttural sound that is made in the back of the throat. so generally it is the halfway point between r and l.


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## Oldbear343

Great stuff ☺


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