How to tell age in Korean! 몇 살이에요?

3 years ago

in Korean, we have 2 different ways of counting numbers.
one is the pure Korean way, and the other is the Chinese adopted way.
when we tell the age we use the pure-Korean way.

1 하나 ha-na

2 둘 dul

3 셋 set

4 넷 net

5 다섯 da-seot

6 여섯 yeo-seot

7 일곱 il-gop

8 여덟 yeo-deol

9 아홉 ah- hop

10 열 yeol

20 스물 seu-mul

30 서른 seo-reun

40 마흔 ma-heun

50 쉰 shin

60 예순 ye- soon

70 일흔 il-heun

80 여든 yeo-deun

90 아흔 ah-heun

but for numbers from 50 which is 쉰,
people tend to use the Chinese adopted way since it's easier :)

' years old ' is ' 살 ' sal
so '5 years old' would be
=다섯 살
da-seot sal

and for the 1 to 4 (하나 둘 셋 넷) we delete every ending vowel/consonant when you tell the age.

for example.
하나(one) + 살(years old) would be
=한살

둘+살
=두살

셋+살
=세살

넷+살
=네살

and keep the ending vowel/consonant for other numbers more than 4.

1 year old = 한살

5 years old = 다섯살

17 years old = 열입곱살

23 years old = 스물세살

36 years old = 서른여섯살

so now you can tell your age!

now you can introduce yourself like;

Hello, I am ____. I am _____years old.

안녕, 나는 ____야. 나는 _____살이야.(infromal/casual)
annyeong, naneun _____ya. naneun _____sal eeya.

안녕하세요, 저는 ____입니다. 저는 _____살 입니다.(formal/honorific)
annyeonghaseyo, jeneun _____ip ni da. jeneun _____sal ip ni da.

practice this conversation!

A. How old are you?

몇 살이야? (infromal/casual)
myeot sal eeya?

나이가 어떻게 되세요? (formal/honorific)
na-ee(nai) ka oetteoke doeseyo?

B. I am ____years old.

나는 _____살이야.(infromal/casual)
naneun _____sal eeya.

저는 _____살 입니다.(formal/honorific)
jeneun _____sal ip ni da.

so how old are you? and can you say that in Korean?
comment down below :)