Talk with your classmates about your shopping experiences. Are they much different in your hometowns?

What seems to be happening in the following dialogue?

In this lesson, you will learn the vocabulary and expressions necessary for shopping for basic food items such as fruits. You will learn how to count items using counters, and make polite requests using honorific commands with  -(으)세요.

1. V–(으)세요 Please V

Although –아/어요 can convey a request, there are other more explicit ways to make requests or commands in Korean. The polite command form you see in this lesson is used when you show respect to the person you are speaking to, and is made by adding –으세요 to verb roots that end in a consonant and –세요 to verb roots that end in a vowel.

여기 앉으세요.                                              Please sit here.

물 좀 주세요.                                                 Please give (me) some water.

Strangely enough, ㄹ-ending verbs act as though the ㄹ was not there, thus like vowel-ending verbs:

여기에서 저하고 사세요. (살다)                      Live here with me, please.

운동장에서 노세요. (놀다)                              Play in the playground, please.

Note: Although it is called the polite command form, it is not advisable to use this to elders or someone whose status is higher than yours. We will learn –아/어 주세요 soon, which is used to make even more polite requests!

선생님, 책을 읽으세요.                         Teacher, please read a/the book.

선생님, 책을 읽어 주세요.                     Teacher, please (do me/us a favor and) read the book (for me/us).

You will hear the adverb 좀 a little bit and the marker –만 only frequently used with the verb 주세요. It does not always mean give a little bit of the requested item or only that item. 좀 and –만 here are used as softeners, making the request a bit less direct and more pleading.

숙제 좀 하세요.                                     Please do your homework..!

물 좀 주세요.                                         Please give (me) some water.

2. V–지 마세요 Please do not V

The polite negative command form (don’t do …) is made by adding –지 마세요 to the verb stem.

사과가 비싸요. 사지 마세요.                 Apples are expensive. Don’t buy them.

커피 많이 마시지 마세요.                      Don’t drink too much coffee.

“마세요” is from the verb “말다 (to not do),” which dropped its ㄹ, when it was conjugating for the command form –(으)세요. When you want to make two commands such as “Don’t do A but do B,” the ㄹ comes alive before the connecting marker –고. Sometimes the first verb phrase –지 말고 is omitted and you get the structure N1말고 N2, “not N1 but N2”! It only works with the object of the sentence!

놀지 말고 공부하세요!                                            Don’t play, (but) study!

사과 사지 말고 귤 사세요.                                       Don’t buy apples. Buy mandarin oranges.

3. Conjugation Practice

Complete following table with the appropriate –(으)세요 or  –지 마세요 forms.

<Answer key> 쇼핑하세요, 쇼핑하지 마세요, 만드세요, 만들지 마세요, 걸으세요, 걷지 마세요, 쓰세요, 쓰지 마세요

1111111111111111111111

1. Counters in Korean

In Lesson 9, you learned that the counter 번 is used to count how many times something happens and 개 is used to count the number of items. Counters are little words that mark the type of noun being counted and they come after native Korean numbers because native numbers are typically used for counting. When counting items in Korean, you need to use a fixed word order, Noun + Number + Counter. (For correct spelling, put a space before and after the number when you write.) When asking “how many” items, use Noun + 몇 + Counter:

	Noun	Number	Counter	Example
	사과	한	개	사과 한 개 주세요.	one apple
	고양이	두	마리	고양이 두 마리 있어요.	two cats

In written Korean, where markers are always expected, the Subject or the Object marker can come after the noun you are counting or after the counter. See how other markers work:

사과를 한 개 주세요. =  사과 한 개를 주세요.                  Please give me an apple.

사과도 한 개만 주세요.                                                     Please give me just one apple, as well.

There are counters for various kinds of nouns; some of them are based on shape or another semantic similarity. See what helps you memorize each counter’s usage:

Counter	Items counted	Examples
개	item		도시락 한 개	a box lunch
사람, 명	people		친구 두 명, 두 사람	two friends
마리	animal		개 세 마리	three dogs
잔	cups of		커피 네 잔	three cups of coffee
병	bottle		물 다섯 병	five bottles of water
권	volumes, books		책 여섯 권	six books

2. Counters with numbers

Remember that some native Korean numbers have alternate forms (e.g. 하나 and 한).  The shortened forms (e.g. 한) are adjective forms that are used when followed by a counter or a noun.

one = 하나        vs.        one person = 한 명

two = 둘           vs.        two people = 두 명

three = 셋         vs.        three people = 세 명

four = 넷           vs.        four people = 네 명

…

twenty = 스물                           vs.        twenty people = 스무 명

twenty one = 스물 하나            vs.        twenty one people = 스물 한 명

1. 얼마예요? How much is/are?

“얼마예요?” is used to ask for the exact price. If you are interested in the price range, you can say “얼마나 해요?”

불고기 도시락이 얼마예요?                How much is a bulgogi box lunch?

오천 원이에요.                                    It’s 5,000 won.

요즘 사과 하나에 얼마나 해요?          How much does an apple cost these days? (What is a typical price?)

삼천 원쯤 해요.                                   (The going rate is) about 3,000 won.

If you are asking your friends how much they paid for something, you can say “얼마 줬어요?” or “얼마 주고 샀어요?” How much (money) did you give (for that)? Or “얼마 냈어요?” How much did you pay?

그거 얼마 주고 샀어요?                      How much did you pay for that?

오천 원이요.                                        5,000 won (is what I paid/gave).

2. Saying large numbers

You already know that there are two number systems in Korean and native Korean numbers (하나, 둘…) are used for counting. For most other purposes, (naming or numbering items and in mathematics), Sino-Korean numbers (일, 이, 삼…) are used.

An exception to the general rule above is counting money, and this may have to do with numbers beyond 99 all being Sino-Korean numbers. One USD is about 1000-1200 KRW, so large numbers are frequently said and heard in daily life. One important thing to learn in counting large numbers is that every four digits, the unit changes (unlike English, which separates numbers every three digits with a comma).

Can you read these numbers?

3,500 명                                               삼천오백 명

23,500 개                                             이만 삼천오백 개

123,500 권                                           십이만 삼천오백 권

9,123,500 불                                        구백십이만 삼천오백 불

89,123,500 원                                      팔천구백십이만 삼천오백 원

Listen to the conversation between Juan and a store clerk and see if you can answer the following questions in Korean.

1) Where is Juan now?

1) a. restaurant    b. coffee shop    c. convenience store    d. department store

2) What costs 5,000 KRW?

3) What is Juan getting?

4) How much is the magazine?

Read the following poster and find out what is being advertised and how much each item is. Use an online dictionary if needed.

1) 오렌지⁴는 한 봉에 얼마예요?

2) 새우⁶는 얼마예요?

3) 삼겹살⁷은 100g에 얼마예요?

4) 뭐가 삼만육천구백 원이에요?

5) 뭐를 살 거예요?

생일 파티!

You and your friends are throwing a big birthday party for your mutual friend and need to go shopping to prepare for the party. Write a shopping list and find the price for the items online. Decide what to buy and how much you will spend on it.

(맛보기)           가: 우리, 생일 파티에 뭐 사요?

맛보기)             나: 사과나 귤 어때요?

맛보기)             가: 사과가 비싸요. 두 개에 이천 원이에요.  귤 사요….

Online Flea Market

You and your friends are hosting a flea market online to raise money for a local charity. Everyone should post two items with their price tags (in Korean) and try to sell them to classmates.

As a courtesy, please add any helpful information on each of your items (e.g., –(으)세요/–지 마세요).

More Counters

When you count an item (e.g. trees), you need to use the appropriate counter (그루), given on the left in the table below.

Sometimes you use the container to count the content, as in a box of chocolate:

When ordering dishes like 불고기 at a restaurant, no counter is needed. You can just say 불고기 하나. The counter for 김밥 is 줄 (a roll, which is about 8 rounds), but you can also just say 김밥 하나 주세요 to ask for one order of 김밥.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

 Shopping Heaven

What is great about shopping in Korea is the many choices you have. You can go in person to department stores (백화점), chain- or local supermarkets (슈퍼마켓), open- or enclosed markets (시장) if you would like, but you can also buy online and have anything delivered to your house (택배 서비스) if the purchase price is around $20 or more.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

Korean Money

There are no personal checks in Korea. Credit cards are used in most stores, and e-pay (e.g. Kakao Pay) is getting popular for local markets and convenient stores as well as large supermarkets and department stores.

Cash is still being used, of course. Four kinds of bills (천 원, 오천 원, 만 원, 오만 원), and four kinds of coins (십 원, 오십 원, 백 원, 오백 원) are widely used.