How to Ask the Time in Korean
To ask the time in Korean, say 지금 몇 시예요? (jigeum myeot siyeyo?), "What time is it now?" If you are stopping a stranger, put 실례지만 (sillyejiman, "excuse me, but") in front of it and you are done — that is the whole question, and it works at a bus stop, in a station, or in a shop where your phone has just died. The genuinely hard part is not asking. It is understanding the answer, because Korean counts hours with one set of numbers and minutes with a completely different set. 3:20 comes out as 세 시 이십 분 (se si isip bun) — native Korean 세 for the hour, Sino-Korean 이십 for the minutes. Mix them up and you will say something that sounds, to a Korean ear, roughly like "the third-ish o'clock and twenty-ish."
- What time is it now? — 지금 몇 시예요? (jigeum myeot siyeyo?)
- Excuse me, what time is it? — 실례지만 지금 몇 시예요? (sillyejiman jigeum myeot siyeyo?)
- What time does it open? — 몇 시에 열어요? (myeot sie yeoreoyo?)
- What time does it close? — 몇 시에 닫아요? (myeot sie dadayo?)
- It's 3:20. — 세 시 이십 분이에요. (se si isip bunieyo.)
- Half past three. — 세 시 반이에요. (se si banieyo.)
지금 몇 시예요? — the question itself
몇 (myeot) is the question word for "how many / what number," and 시 (si) is the hour. Put them together and 몇 시 is literally "what hour." Add 예요 and you have a question — the same question-word-plus-예요 shape that gives you 뭐예요? ("what is it?") and 어디예요? ("where is it?"), Pattern 15 in the SULSUL workbook. 지금 (jigeum) means "now," and while you can drop it, keeping it makes the question unmistakable even if your pronunciation is still wobbly.
Speaking of pronunciation: 몇 시 is not pronounced the way it is spelled. The ㅊ at the end of 몇 flattens and the 시 tightens, so it comes out closer to myeot-ssi — almost "myuht-shi" with a hard little push on the second syllable. Aim for that and people will catch it immediately.
Two safer-than-you-think variations. To an older stranger or anyone in uniform, 실례지만 지금 몇 시예요? is the courteous full package. Among friends in 반말, the same question drops to 지금 몇 시야? (jigeum myeot siya?). And if you want to hand someone your phone problem instead of asking outright, 혹시 시간 아세요? (hoksi sigan aseyo?) — "Do you happen to know the time?" — is softer still.
You: 실례지만 지금 몇 시예요? — sillyejiman jigeum myeot siyeyo? — "Excuse me, what time is it?" Them: 지금 네 시 십 분이에요. — jigeum ne si sip bunieyo. — "It's 4:10." You: 감사합니다! — gamsahamnida! — "Thank you!"
Practice this out loud with SULSUL — the app says it, you repeat it →
Hours are native numbers, minutes are Sino-Korean
This is the one rule that decides whether you understand the reply. Korean has two number systems, and the clock uses both at once: native Korean numbers for the hour, Sino-Korean numbers for the minute. There is no logic to appeal to here — it is simply how the clock is read, and every Korean speaker does it automatically.
| Time | Korean | Romanization |
|---|---|---|
| 1:00 | 한 시 | han si |
| 2:00 | 두 시 | du si |
| 3:00 | 세 시 | se si |
| 4:00 | 네 시 | ne si |
| 5:00 | 다섯 시 | daseot si |
| 6:00 | 여섯 시 | yeoseot si |
| 7:00 | 일곱 시 | ilgop si |
| 8:00 | 여덟 시 | yeodeol si |
| 9:00 | 아홉 시 | ahop si |
| 10:00 | 열 시 | yeol si |
| 11:00 | 열한 시 | yeolhan si |
| 12:00 | 열두 시 | yeoldu si |
Notice what happens to the first four. The standalone native numbers are 하나, 둘, 셋, 넷, but in front of a counter like 시 they shorten to 한, 두, 세, 네. So it is 네 시, never 넷 시. This shortening is not special to telling time — it happens with every counter, which is why it is worth burning in now.
Minutes, meanwhile, are pure Sino-Korean: 오 분 (5), 십 분 (10), 십오 분 (15), 이십 분 (20), 삼십 분 (30), 사십오 분 (45), 오십 분 (50). Stack them and you get the real thing:
- 여섯 시 삼십 분 — yeoseot si samsip bun — 6:30
- 아홉 시 사십오 분 — ahop si sasibo bun — 9:45
- 열두 시 오 분 — yeoldu si o bun — 12:05
For 30 minutes, everyone says 반 (ban, "half") instead: 여섯 시 반 (yeoseot si ban), "half past six." And 전 (jeon, "before") handles the countdown: 세 시 십 분 전 (se si sip bun jeon) is "ten to three." If the two number sets still feel slippery, the full side-by-side breakdown — including which one you need when you hand over cash — is in Korean numbers for paying and counting in Korea.
Morning or evening? 오전, 오후, and the 24-hour clock
Korean does not lean on AM and PM in speech the way English does. 오전 (ojeon) is AM and 오후 (ohu) is PM, and they go before the time, not after: 오전 열 시 (10 AM), 오후 일곱 시 (7 PM). In everyday conversation people are just as likely to use the part of day — 아침 여덟 시 (achim yeodeol si, "eight in the morning"), 저녁 여섯 시 (jeonyeok yeoseot si, "six in the evening"), 밤 열한 시 (bam yeolhan si, "eleven at night").
Printed schedules are a different world. Train boards, movie listings, and clinic signs all use the 24-hour clock, so you will read 19:00 on a KTX ticket — but the clerk will say it aloud as 오후 일곱 시. Expect the mismatch and it stops being confusing. If you are about to buy one of those tickets, the counter phrases live in Korean phrases for buying a KTX train ticket.
몇 시에 — asking what time something happens
Once you can say 몇 시, adding one letter turns it into the most useful travel question of all. Attach 에 and you are asking at what time something happens: 몇 시에 (myeot sie). This is Pattern 28 in the workbook, the time-appointment frame, and it carries you through opening hours, departures, and meeting times.
- 몇 시에 열어요? — myeot sie yeoreoyo? — "What time do you open?"
- 몇 시에 닫아요? — myeot sie dadayo? — "What time do you close?"
- 버스가 몇 시에 와요? — beoseuga myeot sie wayo? — "What time does the bus come?"
- 몇 시에 출발해요? — myeot sie chulbalhaeyo? — "What time does it leave?"
- 몇 시에 만날까요? — myeot sie mannalkkayo? — "What time shall we meet?"
To ask for a span rather than a point, use 부터 ("from") and 까지 ("until"): 몇 시부터 몇 시까지 해요? (myeot sibuteo myeot sikkaji haeyo?), "What hours are you open?" It is the single best thing to say at a restaurant door, a museum desk, or a 찜질방 counter, and the answer usually comes back in the same shape — 열 시부터 밤 열 시까지요 ("ten in the morning until ten at night").
And when you answer with a time yourself, the 에 rides along: 두 시에 만나요 (du sie mannayo), "Let's meet at two." One trap here, and it is the mistake almost every learner makes once — 에 does not attach to 지금 (now), 오늘 (today), 내일 (tomorrow), or 어제 (yesterday). It is 내일 만나요, never 내일에 만나요.
You: 여기 몇 시부터 몇 시까지 해요? — yeogi myeot sibuteo myeot sikkaji haeyo? — "What hours are you open here?" Them: 열한 시부터 밤 열 시까지예요. — yeolhan sibuteo bam yeol sikkajiyeyo. — "Eleven in the morning to ten at night." You: 주말에도 해요? — jumaredo haeyo? — "Are you open on weekends too?"
When you don't catch the number
Numbers are the first thing that vanishes at real speed, and a half-heard time is worse than no time at all. Three rescues, in order of usefulness:
천천히 말해 주세요 (cheoncheonhi malhae juseyo) — "Please say it slowly." Perfectly polite, and Koreans will usually slow right down and repeat the number by itself.
다시 말해 주세요 (dasi malhae juseyo) — "Please say it again." Use this when you caught the hour but lost the minutes.
여기 좀 써 주세요 (yeogi jom sseo juseyo) — "Please write it here." Hand over your phone or a receipt. Digits work across every language barrier, and nobody minds. For the wider set of slow-down-please tools, see Korean phrases when someone speaks too fast.
What usually goes wrong
Using Sino numbers for the hour. 삼 시 is not a time. It is 세 시. If you learned numbers by counting 일, 이, 삼, 사, your instinct will pull you exactly the wrong way on the clock.
Using native numbers for the minutes. 스물 분 is not a time either — minutes are always 이십 분. The rule flips halfway through the sentence, every single time.
Saying 넷 시 instead of 네 시. Before a counter, 하나, 둘, 셋, 넷 shorten to 한, 두, 세, 네. Same for 열하나 → 열한 시 and 열둘 → 열두 시.
Confusing 몇 시 with 몇 시간. 몇 시 asks what time it is; 몇 시간 asks how many hours something takes. 몇 시간 걸려요? (myeot sigan geollyeoyo?) means "How long does it take?" — a very different question from the one you meant to ask.
Saying 시간 있어요? when you want the clock. 시간 있어요? (sigan isseoyo?) means "Do you have time / are you free?" — it is an invitation, not a request for the time. For the clock, stick to 지금 몇 시예요?
Putting 에 on 지금. 지금 already means "now," so 지금에 is ungrammatical. Time words that point at the current moment — 지금, 오늘, 내일, 어제, 언제 — refuse the particle.
Say it out loud, not just in your head
지금 몇 시예요? takes two seconds to read and somehow evaporates the moment a stranger looks up at you — and then the answer arrives at full speed, with two number systems inside it.
SULSUL is a speaking gym for exactly that moment: pick a survival pattern, say it out loud, get an instant fix from the AI pronunciation coach, then run the whole exchange — question, number, thank you — as a mission until it comes out clean. The 100-pattern PDF workbook comes along as a bonus.
