Lesson 114: dates, days, and the particle 에

The last content lesson of Basic 1A. Everything here runs on the Sino-Korean numbers from lesson 112.

Vocabulary: when#

지난 / 이번 / 다음 combine with 주 and 달 mechanically:

Years break the pattern — they use Sino-Korean words of their own rather than 지난 해 / 다음 해.

Days of the week#

요일 (曜日) means day of the week, and the first syllable is the sun, the moon and the five classical elements — the same system behind the Japanese days and, via Latin, behind Sunday, Monday and Saturday in English. So the sequence is memorable as 월화수목금토일, said as one word. You will hear it used that way: 월화수목금 is the working week.

Three of the seven link across, hence the bracketed pronunciations.

Months#

Month = number + 월. Two of them are irregular.

June is 유월, not 육월. October is 시월, not 십월. The final consonant is dropped in both, purely because the full forms are awkward to say. These are the only two, and they are the only two you have to remember as exceptions.

Dates#

Date = number + 일. No irregulars here — 6 and 10 keep their consonants when they are days rather than months.

Note that 십일 is the 10th and also eleven. Context and the following 월 or 일 disambiguate: 십일월 is November, 십일 일 is the 10th.

A full date runs big to small — year, month, day:

2026년 8월 8일

The particle 에#

에 has already appeared twice. Here is the full picture: it marks a point — in space or in time.

With a place#

With a time#

One 에, at the end of the whole phrase — not one per element.

Five time words never take 에: 어제, 오늘, 내일, 언제, 지금.

오늘에 회의해요 is wrong; 오늘 회의해요 is right. The rough logic is that these are already complete adverbs — they locate the event by themselves and do not need a particle to do it. Days, months and dates are nouns, so they do.

Parts of a month#

초 (初) beginning, 중순 (中旬) middle third, 말 (末) end.

Practice#

Q: 언제 회의해요?
   When is the meeting?
A: 매주 금요일에 회의해요.
   We meet every Friday.

Q: 언제 생일이에요?  /  생일이 어떻게 되세요?
   When is your birthday?
A: 8월 8일이에요.
   It's the 8th of August.

Q: 언제 입사했어요?
   When did you join the company?
A: 작년 1월 5일에 입사했어요.
   I joined on 5 January last year.

매주 is every week; 입사하다 (入社) is to join a company, a 하다 verb of the kind from lesson 111.

생일이 어떻게 되세요? is the polite version of the birthday question — literally how does your birthday come to be?. The 되세요 construction is the standard way to ask a personal detail without being blunt, and it is what you would use with anyone senior.

Note also 입사했어요 — the first past tense in the course. -었/았- slots in before the ending, the same position -겠- occupies in lesson 110. Not formally taught in Basic 1A, but it appears in the practice sentences, so it is worth recognising.

The culture half#

The lesson plan lists Korean Wave (한류) for this slot; the lesson’s own title slide says Hyundai Company History and Offices. Either way the deck carries no slides for it — 114 ends with the practice sentences above, and the remaining pages are the review and assessment.