Korean words in Hangul: days, months, numbers and greetings
Korean words are written in Hangul, an alphabet of 24 basic letters stacked into syllable blocks. The four pages below cover the first Korean words most learners need, each with Hangul, Revised Romanization and notes on use: the days of the week, the months, the two number systems and the everyday greetings.
How Korean words are written
- 한국어Korean (South) Hangul
- 조선어Korean (North) Hangul
- 한글Hangul Hangul
- 訓民正音Hunminjeongeum Hanja
Hangul was devised at the court of King Sejong of Joseon, presented around the turn of 1443 to 1444 and promulgated in 1446 with the Hunminjeongeum, the proper sounds for instructing the people. Sejong's preface speaks of twenty-eight new letters. Modern spelling uses 24 basic ones, 14 consonants and 10 vowels, according to Wikipedia's article on Hangul.
The letters are not written in a row like English ones. They are packed into square syllable blocks: an initial consonant, a vowel and sometimes a final consonant. The plate shows 한, made of ㅎ h, ㅏ a and ㄴ n. About 11,172 blocks are possible, though only some 2,000 are in common use.
Hanja, the Chinese characters, still lie behind much of the vocabulary. Estimates of the Sino-Korean share of Korean words range from about 30 to 65 percent. North Korea dropped hanja from general writing in 1949; in the South most newspapers moved to text written mainly in Hangul in the 1990s. The script has two names as well: 한글 in the South and 조선글 in the North, where the day honouring it falls on 15 January, against 9 October in the South.
Four sets of basic Korean words
Each page gives the full set in Hangul with the Revised Romanization, IPA where a dictionary source gives it, example sentences and the mistakes learners most often make.
- 01Days of the week in Korean: the seven 요일 in Hangul, hanja and IPAThe days of the week in Korean are 월요일, 화요일, 수요일, 목요일, 금요일, 토요일 and 일요일, Monday to Sunday. Each one is a single syllable for a heavenly body plus 요일, the word for a day of the week, and calendars print that first syllable alone: 월 화 수 목 금 토 일.
- 02Months in Korean: 일월 to 십이월, with hanja, IPA and date orderThe months in Korean are numbered: a Sino-Korean number plus 월, month, from 일월 (1월) for January to 십이월 (12월) for December. Two of them bend the rule in speech and spelling, 유월 for June and 시월 for October.
- 03Numbers in Korean: Sino-Korean and native counting, 1 to 100 and 억Numbers in Korean come in two sets. The Sino-Korean series, 일, 이, 삼, borrowed with Chinese characters, handles dates, money, minutes and anything large; the native series, 하나, 둘, 셋, counts people, things, hours and years of age, and stops at ninety-nine.
- 04Greetings in Korean: hello, two ways to say goodbye and speech levelsThe everyday greetings in Korean are built on one word, 안녕, peace or well-being: 안녕하세요 is hello, 안녕히 가세요 and 안녕히 계세요 are the two goodbyes, and plain 안녕 does both jobs among friends. Which form fits depends less on the time of day than on who is being addressed.
What the four topics have in common
Calendar words in Korean are counted and labelled. The days of the week join a heavenly body to 요일: 월요일, the moon's day, is Monday. The months join a number to 월: 삼월 is March. Only June and October bend the pattern, as 유월 and 시월. Dates run from year to day, 2026년 10월 28일.
Numbers need two systems. Sino-Korean 일, 이, 삼 count money, minutes and dates; native 하나, 둘, 셋 count people, objects and hours. Most early mistakes with Korean words for numbers come from mixing the two, as in clock times, where 세 시 삼십 분 joins a native hour to Sino-Korean minutes.
Greetings change with the listener, not the time of day. 안녕하세요 serves morning and evening; what shifts is the ending, from formal -ㅂ니다 through polite -요 to casual forms without either.
Korean is the official language of South Korea and North Korea, whose provinces and their Korean names are on the North Korean subdivisions page. In China it is a recognised minority language in the Yanbian prefecture and Changbai county. The South calls the language 한국어 and the North 조선어; the regulators are the National Institute of Korean Language in Seoul and the Language Research Institute of the Academy of Social Science in Pyongyang.
Questions about Korean words and Hangul
How many letters does Hangul have?
24 basic letters in modern use, 14 consonants and 10 vowels. Combined and doubled they make 51 jamo. The original Hunminjeongeum of 1446 had 28.
Why are Korean words written in blocks?
Hangul groups the letters of each syllable into one square block, initial consonant, vowel and optional final consonant. 한국 is two blocks, 한 and 국, made of six letters.
Which romanisation is used for Korean words here?
The Revised Romanization of Korean, the official system in South Korea, so 안녕하세요 is annyeonghaseyo and 월요일 woryoil.
Is Korean the same in North and South Korea?
It is one language with two standards, each with its own regulator. Even the name of the language differs: 한국어 in the South, 조선어 in the North.