Months in Korean

Last Updated on May 4, 2020

Do you know how to say the various months in Korean? It’s really important, and for good reason!

In this lesson, we’ll explain how to say and write the various months in Korean. Then we’ll also show you how to write specific dates and years, such as your date of birth.

This will be extremely valuable so you can talk about things like holidays in your home country, today’s date, as well as make plans on a future date with your Korean friends. You can combine these with telling time in Korean and knowing the Korean days of the week as well.

Let’s get to it!

In this lesson, we’ll introduce you to all of the words in Hangeul (the Korean alphabet) with romanized English on the side for pronunciation help. We highly recommend learning the Korean alphabet. It will make it easier to learn new vocabulary words and pronounce them properly. This will also help if you’re planning on going to Korea or learning the language.

Months in Korean

There are two main words for how to say “month” in Korean. The first word is 월 (wol) and the second word is 달 (dal). The two words have some differences in how they are used, which we will illustrate in the below examples further.

To simply explain it, 월 (wol) is used for describing the date in Korean. 달 (dal), on the other hand, is used to count the months. You can also use it when you want to say something like “this month”, “last month” or “next month”.

Learning to differentiate between the two words for “month” in Korean is going to be quite easy, though. After all, one of the words, 월 (wol), is already attached to each and every month. In fact, as soon as you’ve learned to count in Korean, learning how to say months in Korean will be the easiest task!

Why is that? Because all of the months are assigned a number based on the order of the month.

Here is a table to illustrate:

If you have not yet learned the numbers in Korean, you can learn them here this lesson.

Because each month goes by numbers, Koreans usually write each month in the numeric form. For example, when writing March, you would write it as 3월 (samwol). January would be 1월 (irwol), and July is 7월 (chirwol). The table below is how Koreans would usually write the months. The romanized Korean next to the months is there for a guide.

This will also be the way to write dates in Korean, which we’ll discuss in a bit.

Special Pronunciation

You may have noticed that both June and October slightly differ from their designated numbers. That is because the words for six and ten, 육 (yuk) and 십 (sib) respectively, are difficult to pronounce naturally when combined with the word 월 (wol). Therefore, the last consonant has been dropped.

Dates in Korean

You might be asking how dates are written in Korean. For the next part of this lesson, let go over how to write full dates. That will allow you to add in the day and year component. You can write it using this format:

YYYY년MM월DD일

YYYY(nyeon) MM(wol) DD(il)

Usually the year is 4 digits, but you may see it written as 2 digits as well.

Let’s use one a BTS members age for an example. Jungkook’s birthday is September 1st. He was born on September 1, 1997. We can write it as:

1997년 9월 1일 (cheongubaekgusip chil nyeon guwol iril)

Fun fact: Do you know how old Jungkook from BTS is in Korean age? Here’s how to find out.

Sample Sentences

Use these sample sentences as a guide to how to make Korean sentences using months and dates. Additionally, you can mix it up by substituting days of the week in Korean. These are great examples for assisting with learning Korean grammar, such as particles and markers.

제 생일은 4월 7일입니다 (je saengireun sawol chiririmnida)

My birthday is on April 7

 

여덟달전에 한국에 왔어요 (yeodeoldaljeone hanguge wasseoyo)

I came to Korea eight months ago

 

우리 나라의 제일 중요한 휴일은 십이월말에 있습니다

(uri naraui jeil jungyohan hyuireun sibiwolmare itseumnida)

Our country’s most important holiday is at the end of December

 

Congratulations! You have completed this lesson and successfully learned all the months in Korean. You should now be able to read and write dates. That will help you with understanding Korean culture, as well as what happens in Korean dramas and movies.

After this lesson, you also know the difference between the two words for “month” in Korean. Try writing your favorite date or month in Korean below in the comments, and let us know why that date is important to you.