Lesson 118: native Korean numbers, 비음화, and introducing yourself

The other set of numbers. Sino-Korean (117) counts money and dates; these count age, hours, and things.

The teens are built the same way as Sino-Korean, 열 plus the ones word:

The tens, however, are nine separate words with nothing in common — this is the part that has to be memorised rather than derived:

Native Korean stops at 99. From 100 onwards you switch to Sino-Korean 백, even for things the native set would otherwise count. There is no native word for a hundred in current use.

여덟 is written with a double 받침 ㄼ but said [여덜] — only the ㄹ survives, which is the 겹받침 rule from 105.

Pronunciation: 비음화, nasalisation#

The rule behind a sound you have been making since your first week without knowing why.

When ㄱ, ㄷ or ㅂ is followed by ㄴ or ㅁ, it becomes a nasal — ㅇ, ㄴ and ㅁ respectively. The stop can’t survive next to a nasal, so it turns into the nasal made in the same place in the mouth.

Notice that each stop turns into the nasal from its own row — the tongue does not move, it just lets air through the nose instead. That is why the pairs are what they are.

And the one that matters most, because it is in every formal sentence you will ever say:

This is why 입니다 is always heard as imnida, never ipnida. It is not sloppiness and it is not an exception; it is the rule applying to the single most common ending in formal Korean. Same for 먹습니다 [먹씀니다] and 감사합니다.

The consonants by place of articulation#

Grammar recap: the two politeness levels#

Both endings from 1A, side by side, because 1B uses them interchangeably in dialogues from here on.

Casual polite — -아요/어요/해요#

Formal polite — -ㅂ니다/습니다#

Statement in -ㅂ니다/습니다, question in -ㅂ니까/습니까.

Every one of those is nasalised on the way out: 갑니다 [감니다], 먹습니다 [먹씀니다].

Work culture: 자기소개, self-introduction#

A Korean self-introduction has more required parts than an English one. Doing only the name reads as unfinished.

1. Greeting#

2. Name#

The plain question is 이름이 뭐예요?. The one you use with anyone senior is 성함이 어떻게 되세요? — literally “how does your name come to be”, which avoids pointing at the person at all.

(이)라고 하다 is the useful one for a non-Korean name, because it frames it as what you are called rather than asserting a Korean-shaped noun: 저는 페이라고 합니다.

3. Age#

Plain: 몇 살이에요?. Polite: 나이가 어떻게 되세요?, or 연세 for someone much older.

살 takes native numbers — 서른네 살, not 삼십사 살.

Asking age without asking age#

Age decides the whole register of a Korean conversation, so it gets asked early — but asking directly can be blunt. The zodiac is the standard way round it: the animals cycle every twelve years, so the answer narrows someone to a handful of possible years without a number ever being said.

A: 무슨 띠예요? — What’s your zodiac sign? B: 돼지띠예요. — I’m a pig.

In practice both people can usually place each other within a year from the animal plus a glance, which is the entire point.