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Nouns & gender
Korean nouns have no gender, no case endings (the particles that follow a noun do that job, and they are separate words), and no plural inflection. A noun never changes. What a learner has to learn is which of two vocabularies a word comes from, how to count it, and when a noun has an honorific twin.
Two vocabularies
More than half of Korean vocabulary is Sino-Korean (한자어): Chinese words borrowed over fifteen centuries, each syllable a Chinese character, each character read the same way every time. The rest is native (고유어), plus a growing layer of English loans (외래어).
| native | Sino-Korean | |
|---|---|---|
| water | 물 | 수 (水) — 수도 tap water, 수영 swimming |
| mountain | 산 is itself Sino (山) | — |
| person | 사람 | 인 (人) — 인구 population, 한국인 a Korean |
| day | 날 | 일 (日) — 일요일 Sunday, 생일 birthday |
| one, two, three | 하나 둘 셋 | 일 이 삼 (一二三) |
| doctor | 의원 (old) | 의사 (醫師) |
The Sino-Korean words are the formal, abstract and technical ones, and they are the same words as in Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese and Vietnamese, read in each language's own sounds: 학생 (學生) is xuésheng, hok6 saang1, gakusei, học sinh. The Chinese characters are given in the vocabulary notes so the columns can be read against one another.
Counting: numbers and classifiers
Two number systems, and a classifier for the thing counted:
| native numbers | Sino-Korean numbers | |
|---|---|---|
| used for | counting things, people, animals, hours, age | dates, minutes, money, floors, phone numbers, anything over 99 |
| 1 2 3 4 | 하나 둘 셋 넷 (한 두 세 네 before a classifier) | 일 이 삼 사 |
사람 세 명 — three people · 고양이 두 마리 — two cats · 책 한 권 — one book · 맥주 네 병 — four bottles of beer · 삼 층 — the third floor · 오 분 — five minutes
The classifiers are the same set as Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese: 개 (things), 명/분 (people; 분 is the honorific), 마리 (animals), 권 (books), 대 (vehicles, machines), 장 (sheets), 잔 (cups), 병 (bottles), 살 (years of age).
Honorific nouns
A handful of everyday nouns have a respectful form used when the thing belongs to someone you honour:
| plain | honorific | |
|---|---|---|
| 이름 | 성함 | name |
| 나이 | 연세 | age |
| 집 | 댁 | house |
| 밥 | 진지 | meal |
| 말 | 말씀 | words, speech |
| 사람 | 분 | person |
성함이 어떻게 되세요? "What is your name?" (to a customer) against 이름이 뭐예요? (to a peer). This is part of the honorific system that runs through the whole language; the verbs have it too (Present tense).
Sex, where it matters
남자 man, 여자 woman; for animals 수- male, 암- female: 수탉 cock, 암탉 hen. Nothing in the grammar refers to it.
Building nouns
Sino-Korean nouns are built from character pairs, head last: 학교 (學校) "learn-institution", 대학교 "big-learn-institution" = university, 한국어 "Korea-language". Native compounds are built the same way: 손목 hand-neck = wrist, 발목 foot-neck = ankle, 눈물 eye-water = tears.
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