🇺🇸 Translation
December is the season of excitement🎄
📙 Lesson point
How to say “December is the season of excitement” in Korean
Hello, everyone! We’re going to learn four things today. First, we’ll learn about how to say the 12 months in Korean. Next, using this, we’ll learn how to say what day it is in Korean. Third, we’ll take a look at how to express how many months in Korean. Lastly, we’ll learn details about a unique Korean word ‘설렘,’ which is used in this post.
After reading today’s post, not only will you be able to learn how to say “December is the season of excitement” in Korean, but you’ll also understand how this Korean expression is grammatically formed. Moreover, we’ll look into the actual expression that Karina of AESPA used for her Instagram post. Let’s begin!
How to say 12 Months in Korean
First, let’s learn how to say the 12 months in Korean. To say what month it is, you simply just have to write it in the form of ‘Sino-Korean Number + 월.’ The Sino-Korean numbers that are used for telling the months would be ‘일, 이, 삼, 사, 오, 육, 칠, 팔, 구, 십, 십일, 십이.’
1월 (일월) : January
2월 (이월) : February
3월 (삼월) : March
4월 (사월) : April
5월 (오월) : May
6월 (유월) : June *Normally, we need to write 6 as '육,' but to pronounce more easily, we omit the last consonant ㄱ and read it as '유월'
7월 (칠월) : July
8월 (팔월) : August
9월 (구월) : September
10월 (시월) : October *Normally, we need to write 10 as '십,' but to pronounce more easily, we omit the last consonant ㅂ and read it as '시월'
11월 (십일월) : November
12월 (십이월) : December
How to say what day it is in Korean
Next, let’s learn about how to say what day it is in Korean. You just need to write it in the form of ‘Sino-Korean Number + 월 Sino-Korean Number + 일.’ Let’s take a look at two examples that you need to be careful of.
6월 6일 : 유월 육일
10월 10일 : 시월 십일
For ‘6월,’ as we learned before, we omit the last consonant and pronounce it as ‘유월,’ but for 6일, we pronounce it as ‘육일.’ Similarly for 10월 10일, we pronounce ’10월’ as ‘시월,’ but pronounce ’10일’ as ‘십일.’ Let’s take a look at some other examples.
April 26th: 4월 26일 (사월 이십육일)
June 2nd: 6월 2일 (유월 이일)
January 17th: 1월 17일 (일월 십칠일)
October 31st: 10월 31일 (시월 삼십일일)
September 15th: 9월 15일 (구월 십오일)
Korea’s two number systems
There are two number systems in Korean. The first is the Sino-Korean number system, and it goes ‘1-일 2-이 3-삼 4-사 5-오…’ This system is used for counting money, reading numbers, or addressing minutes and seconds of time. This number system sounds more rigid, objective, and formal.
The second is the Native-Korean number system. This system is primarily used to counting the number of things or addressing hours of time. It goes like ‘1-하나 2-둘 3-셋 4-넷 5-다섯…’
| numbers | Sino-Korean | Native-Korean |
| 1 | 일 | 하나 (한) |
| 2 | 이 | 둘 (두) |
| 3 | 삼 | 셋 (세) |
| 4 | 사 | 넷 (네) |
| 5 | 오 | 다섯 |
| 6 | 육 | 여섯 |
| 7 | 칠 | 일곱 |
| 8 | 팔 | 여덟 |
| 9 | 구 | 아홉 |
| 10 | 십 | 열 |
| 11 | 십일 | 열하나 (열한) |
| 12 | 십이 | 열둘 (열두) |
How many months?
Based on what we learned about the two different number systems, let’s learn how to express how long it took.
The first is using ‘Native-Korean number + 달.’ Here, ‘달’ is used for expressing “month.” The second is using ‘Sino-Korean number + 개월.’ It sounds more businesslike and hard than when using Native Korean, as explained earlier. Let’s look at some examples to see the difference.
한 달 - one month
한 달 동안 피자를 안 먹었어
= I didn't eat pizza for a month
1개월 동안 피자를 안 먹었어
= I didn't eat pizza for a month (more businesslike)
두 달 - two months
두 달 후에 보자
= Let's meet after two months
2개월 후에 보자
= Let's meet after two months (more businesslike)
세 달 - three months
도쿄 여행까지 세 달 남았어
= We have three months left until our trip to Tokyo
도쿄 여행까지 3개월 남았어
= We have three months left until our trip to Tokyo (more businesslike)
네 달 - four months
작년에 서울에서 네 달 살았어요
= I lived at Seoul for four months last year
작년에 서울에서 4개월 살았어요
= I lived at Seoul for four months last year (more businesslike)
다섯 달 - five months
한국어 공부를 시작한 지 벌써 다섯 달이나 됐어
= It's already been five months since I started studying Korean
한국어 공부를 시작한 지 벌써 5개월이나 됐어
= It's already been five months since I started studying Korean (more businesslike)
What does ‘설렘’ mean?
Lastly, let’s learn about the word ‘설렘,’ which is used in Karina’s post.
설렘 (noun) : positive heart-fluttering, excitement
‘설렘’ has mainly two meanings. The first one would be “the palpitations you feel when you expect something good or what you want to happen in the near future,” and the second meaning would be “the palpitations of a romantic partner.” Let’s look at a couple of examples.
남자친구와의 설렘은 정확히 세 달 만에 끝났다
= My heart-fluttering with my boyfriend ended exactly three months later
여행의 설렘 때문에 잠들 수 없었어
= I couldn't sleep because of the excitement of the trip
‘설렘’ can be also used in the form of a verb, which would be ‘설레다.’ It would mean “to feel positive hear-fluttering or excitement.” Let’s take a look at a few examples using ‘설레다.’
잘생긴 남자의 향수 냄새에 살짝 설렜다
= I was a little fluttered by the smell of the perfume from a handsome man
다이어트 끝나면 케이크 먹을 생각에 설레
= I feel excited thinking about eating cake after my diet
로맨틱한 말을 들어도 전혀 설레지 않아
= I don't feel fluttered at all, even when listening to romantic words
Karina says: “12월은 설렘의 계절이야🎄”
To conclude, let’s take a look at the post Karina of AESPA posted on Instagram. Based on what we learned, we know that ’12월’ means “December,” and ‘설렘’ means “excitement.” Therefore, she seems to be expressing her excitement for December, waiting for Christmas!