Korean Dates and Months: 유월, 시월, and the Sino Rule
Korean dates are all sino numbers — 년, 월, 일, big to small — with two exceptions: June is 유월, October is 시월. Learn months, 며칠, 부터/까지, and birthday phrases.
Published:
Written by Alvin Lim Certified Korean Language Teacher (Level 2)
Korean dates run entirely on sino numbers, spoken big-to-small: 년 (year) → 월 (month) → 일 (day), as in 2026년 6월 7일. Months are simply number + 월, with exactly two irregulars: June is 유월 (not 육월) and October is 시월 (not 십월). After the mixed clock of Lesson 9, dates are a relief — one number system only.
Date words
The twelve months
일월 irwol — Jan · 이월 iwol — Feb · 삼월 samwol — Mar · 사월 sawol — Apr · 오월 owol — May · 유월 yuwol — Jun ⚠️ · 칠월 chirwol — Jul · 팔월 parwol — Aug · 구월 guwol — Sep · 시월 siwol — Oct ⚠️ · 십일월 sibirwol — Nov · 십이월 sibiwol — Dec
No names to memorize, just sino number + 월 — and the two flagged irregulars. If you catch yourself saying 육월 or 십월, stop and resay it: 유월, 시월. Korean ears flinch at the wrong ones the way English ears flinch at “Junuary”.
Saying a full date
2026년 6월 7일 reads 이천이십육 년 유월 칠 일. Days are sino too: 일 일 (1st), 이 일 (2nd), 삼 일 (3rd) … 십오 일 (15th), 삼십일 일 (31st). Ask the date with 오늘 며칠이에요? (what’s the date today?) or in full: 몇 월 며칠이에요? (what month and day?). Spelling alert: it is always 며칠, never 몇 일.
For asking about events, the catch-all question word is 언제 (when): 생일이 언제예요? (when is your birthday?) — answer with a month and day.
From ~ until: 부터 ~ 까지
유월부터 팔월까지 (from June to August) · 월요일부터 금요일까지 (Monday through Friday) · 아홉 시부터 여섯 시까지 일해요 (I work nine to six — Lesson 9’s native hours still apply). Both pieces clip directly onto the noun; no extra particle needed.
When is your birthday?
Spot the lesson points in the wild: 유월 (the June irregular), 모레 without any particle, and 세 시에 from Lesson 9. Bonus: 같이 is pronounced 가치 — the palatalization rule from the batchim lesson.
One culture note worth knowing before someone’s birthday comes around: Koreans eat 미역국 (seaweed soup) on their birthday morning — a quiet thank-you to mothers, who traditionally eat it after giving birth. So a standard birthday exchange includes 미역국 먹었어요? (did you have your seaweed soup?) right next to 생일 축하해요. On paper, dates compress to the same big-to-small order you learned: 2026. 6. 7. on documents, 26.06.07 on receipts — never day-first, so there is no ambiguity to untangle.
FAQ
Why is June 유월 and not 육월? Pure pronunciation comfort: 육월 forces an awkward k-sound mid-word, so the standard spelling drops it — 유월. October does the same, 십월 → 시월. These are the only two, and they are official spellings, not casual shortcuts.
Is it 며칠 or 몇 일? 며칠 is the only standard spelling for “what day of the month”, even though it historically comes from 몇 + 일. Plenty of Koreans misspell it as 몇 일 — write 며칠 and you’ll be more correct than half the internet.
How do I read a year like 2026 out loud? As one big sino number: 이천이십육 년 (two thousand twenty-six). Korean never reads years digit by digit the way English says “twenty twenty-six”. And the order stays big-to-small everywhere: 년 → 월 → 일.
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