Months in Korean – Complete List with Audio and Examples

Do you know how to say the various months in Korean? It’s really important when learning Korean!

Here is the list of months in Korean:

• 일월 (i-rwol) – January
• 이월 (i-wol) – February
• 삼월 (sam-wol) – March
• 사월 (sa-wol) – April
• 오월 (o-wol) – May
• 유월 (yu-wol) – June
• 칠월 (chi-rwol) – July
• 팔월 (pa-rwol) – August
• 구월 (gu-wol) – September
• 시월 (si-wol) – October
• 십일월 (shi-pi-rwol) – November
• 십이월 (shi-pi-wol)- December

In this lesson, we’ll explain how to say and write 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 the lessons on telling time in Korean and the Korean days of the week as well.

Below, we’ve got a detailed guide on how to put these months to use. Let’s get to it!

Below is a free PDF guide that you can download and take with you:

Get “Months in Korean” Free PDF Guide

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.

The word 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 the months of the year in Korean will be an easy 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 in 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.

How to Pronounce the Months

The months are pronounced a bit different because of the special pronunciation rules in Korean. That’s mainly because the word for months (월 | wol) starts with a ㅇ. That means that the previous syllable bottom consonant might change up the pronunciation.

Along with the audio, you can see the Hangeul pronunciation in the “Hangeul Pronunciation” column in brackets:

Special Pronunciation

You might 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.

How to Write Dates in Korean

As you learn 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 days and years as well. You can write it using this format:

YYYY년 MM월 DD일

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

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

Let’s use one a BTS members age for an example. Jungkook’s birthday is on 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.

Examples of Dates in Korean

Time for practice for what we learned. Write the dates below in Korea using both numbers and words. Use the new vocabulary you learned above for 월 and 일.  Then scroll down to check your answers.

March 1 – Independence Movement Day in Korea

July 1 – Canada Day

January 1  – New Year’s Day

February 14 – Valentine’s Day

August 15 – Liberation Day in Korea

December 25 – Christmas

October 31 – Halloween

July 4 – US Independence Day

December 26 – Boxing Day

October 9 – Hangeul Day

Answers:

3월 1일 – 삼월 일일 – March 1 – Independence Movement Day in Korea

7월 1일 – 칠월 일일 – July 1 – Canada Day

1월 1일 – 일월 일일 – January 1  – New Year’s Day

2월 14일 – 이월 십사일 – February 14 – Valentine’s Day

8월 15일 – 팔월 십오일 – August 15 – Liberation Day in Korea

12월 25일 – 십이월 이십오일 – December 25 – Christmas

10월 31일 – 시월 삼십일일 – October 31 – Halloween

7월 4일 – 칠월 사일 – July 4 – US Independence Day

12월 26일 – 십이월 이십육일 – December 26 – Boxing Day

10월 9일 – 시월 구일 – October 9 – Hangeul Day

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

여덟달 전에 한국에 왔어요 (yeodeoldal jeone hanguge wasseoyo)

I came to Korea eight months ago

우리 나라의 제일 중요한 휴일은 십이월 말에 있습니다

(uri naraui jeil jungyohan hyuireun sibiwol mare 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 of the year 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.