This lesson is all about counters. If you want to specify exactly how many of something there is using numbers you must also use these things called "counters". We use counters in English too. Like here: "I have 6 blades of grass". I dont say "I have 6 grasses". Noooo, blades of grass. In Korean they have that kind of thing for every type of noun.
Here are three that are the most useful:
명 for people
마리 for animals
개 for things (although, some types of things get a different counter. This is the most common one)
And the way you use counters is like so:
noun number counter
first identify your noun, then the number, then the counter
(there are other ways to do it but this is the most common. We're keeping it simple)
Let's do an example:
6 gorillas
noun number counter
고릴라 야섯 마리
go-ril-la ya-seot ma-ri
now let's do one with people:
10 elderly women
noun number counter
할머니 열 명
hal-meo-ni yeol myeong
If it were just 10 people (no specific type of people) you would just do the number and the counter:
열 명
yeol myeong
or you could use the Korean word for people as your noun "sa-ram" and say
사람 열 명
sa-ram yeul myeong
Why don't you do one on your own?
30 pianos
How do you say that? I'll give you a hint: a piano is a thing, and the Korean word for piano is 피아노. The answer is in the comments section in the video.
One more thing, any number that ends in a 1, 2, 3, or 4, or the number 20 loses its last letter when used to describe things.
so, ha-na, dul, set net and seu-mul become:
한, 두, 세, 네, 스무
same goes for any number that ends in 1, 2, 3, or 4
such as 11, 12, 13, 14
21, 22, 23, 24
and so on and so on.
But that is only when you are describing how many things there are. So you would say:
han gae
du gae
se gae
ne gae
seu-mu gae
But, when you are just counting they keep their last letter.
ha-na, dul, set, net,...seu-mul
Let me give you an example situation just to make sure you really understand. Say I ask you "how many bananas do we have?" You would count them... like this "hana dul set" and then you would tell me we have "banana se gae"
And then I would answer "WHAT!? Only banana se gae! But we have gorilla ya-seot ma-ri to feed and they don't look like they'd be willing to share!"
If you are struggling to remember your Native Korean Numbers here is a vocabulary chart:
Or, if you never learned it to begin with you can watch my video HERE. It has a cool little story in it to help you remember how to count.
So, lets sum this up! We learned that when we want to talk about how many of something there is the word order is noun number counter and the three most popular counters are myeong for people, ma-ri for animals, and gae for things. and we learned that ha-na dul set net and seu-mul lose their last letter when used to descibe things.
Now, I don't really want to overload you with lots to memorize but I'm sure some people may be curious what other types of counters there are so I made a chart
WATCH THE LESSON: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RiNggsXAhw&feature=youtu.be
