The whole system in one line

Where English has twelve unrelated names to learn — January, February, and so on — Korean (like Japanese and Mandarin) is purely numerical. Take the Sino-Korean number and add 월: il (1) + wol = 1월 (ilwol, January); sam (3) + wol = 3월 (samwol, March). Learn to count to twelve and you have effectively learned all twelve months.

In everyday writing the number itself is used — 1월, not the spelled-out 일월 — so the digits you already know carry almost all the weight.

The only two you must watch

Sino-Korean vs Native Korean numbers

Korean has two number systems, and months use the Sino-Korean set (il, i, sam, sa…), borrowed long ago from Chinese. The same set handles dates, years, money and minutes. The separate Native Korean set (hana, dul, set…) is for counting objects and telling the hour — so 3 o’clock uses a native number while “March” uses a Sino one. For the calendar, you only ever need the Sino-Korean numbers above.

A calendar built on the moon

The character 월 means both “month” and “moon” — a trace of the lunar calendars these systems grew from. Modern South Korea runs on the Gregorian calendar for daily life and business, but the biggest celebrations still follow the lunar cycle: Seollal (Lunar New Year) and Chuseok (the autumn harvest festival) move against the Gregorian dates each year.

Frequently asked questions

Sources & notes

• Romanisation follows the Revised Romanization of Korean (the official South Korean standard).
• The June/October consonant drops (유월, 시월) are standard Sino-Korean month forms.
• Audio uses your browser’s built-in Korean (ko-KR) text-to-speech voice when one is installed.

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