English lets a single pair of question words — how much, how many — roam almost freely. You can ask "how much money," "how many coins," "how much longer," "how many hours" without ever stopping to sort the noun. Korean forces the sort. It has two interrogatives here, and the line between them is countability:
- 몇 asks "how many" of a countable thing — and it must lean on a counter (몇 개, 몇 명, 몇 시). The answer is a number.
- 얼마 asks "how much" — a price, an amount, a degree — and it takes no counter at all. The answer is money, or a quantity.
Get this split right and Korean shopping, scheduling, and small talk fall into place. Get it wrong and you produce the classic beginner error ×얼마 개 ("how much items?"), which no Korean would say.
몇: counting discrete things
몇 never stands alone as the answer-word "how many." It is a prenominal that sits in front of a counter (the little classifier word Korean puts after numbers). Think of 몇 as the question-mark version of a number: wherever a number would go before a counter (세 개 "three items"), 몇 can replace it (몇 개 "how many items").
사과 몇 개 드릴까요?
sagwa myeot gae deurilkkayo
How many apples shall I give you?
가족이 몇 명이에요?
gajogi myeot myeongieyo
How many people are in your family?
지금 몇 시예요?
jigeum myeot siyeyo
What time is it now?
The most useful 몇 + counter combinations are worth memorizing as fixed questions, because you will ask them constantly:
| Question | Counter | Asks |
|---|---|---|
| 몇 개 | 개 (items) | how many things |
| 몇 명 / 몇 분 | 명 / 분 (people, plain/honorific) | how many people |
| 몇 시 (몇 시 몇 분) | 시 (o'clock) | what time |
| 몇 살 | 살 (years, age) | how old |
| 몇 층 | 층 (floor) | which floor |
| 몇 번 | 번 (number / times) | what number / how many times |
| 며칠 | — (days / date) | how many days / what date |
실례지만 나이가 몇 살이에요?
sillyejiman naiga myeot sarieyo
Excuse me, but how old are you?
여기 몇 층에서 내려요?
yeogi myeot cheungeseo naeryeoyo
What floor do you get off on here?
The 며칠 spelling trap
To ask the date or a number of days, the word is 며칠, written exactly like that — not ×몇 일. This is one of Korean's genuinely irregular spellings: even though it means "how many days," it is fixed as 며칠 (pronounced [며칠]), and the form ×몇 일 is a spelling error that native writers are warned about too. Ask the month separately with 몇 월 (pronounced [며둴], with liaison across the boundary).
오늘 며칠이에요?
oneul myeochirieyo
What's the date today?
며칠 정도 쉬고 싶어요.
myeochil jeongdo swigo sipeoyo
I'd like to take a few days off.
That second sentence shows 몇's other job, below: as an indefinite meaning "a few."
얼마: price and amount, no counter
얼마 asks "how much" in the money-and-quantity sense. It behaves like a noun (it takes 예요, 였어요, and particles directly) and, crucially, it takes no counter. The default use — the one you'll say a hundred times in Korea — is asking a price.
이거 얼마예요?
igeo eolmayeyo
How much is this?
다 해서 얼마예요?
da haeseo eolmayeyo
How much is it all together?
그 가방 얼마 주고 샀어요?
geu gabang eolma jugo sasseoyo
How much did you pay for that bag?
얼마 also asks non-price amounts — money you have, distance, weight — anything measured rather than counted one-by-one:
통장에 돈이 얼마 남았어요?
tongjange doni eolma namasseoyo
How much money is left in your account?
얼마나: "to what extent / how long / how often"
Add -나 and 얼마 becomes the adverb 얼마나, which measures degree, duration, and frequency — the "how + adjective/adverb" questions. Where 얼마 asks a flat amount, 얼마나 modifies a verb or adjective: how long, how far, how difficult, how often.
집에서 회사까지 얼마나 걸려요?
jibeseo hoesakkaji eolmana geollyeoyo
How long does it take from home to the office?
운동을 얼마나 자주 해요?
undongeul eolmana jaju haeyo
How often do you work out?
한국어 배우는 게 얼마나 어려워요?
hangugeo baeuneun ge eolmana eoryeowoyo
How hard is it to learn Korean?
몇 as an indefinite: "a few, several"
Just like the other interrogatives, 몇 has a second, unstressed life — here meaning "a few / several," a small unspecified number. Same word, different job, sorted by context.
친구 몇 명이랑 여행 갔다 왔어요.
chingu myeot myeongirang yeohaeng gatda wasseoyo
I went on a trip with a few friends.
몇 사람만 더 오면 시작할게요.
myeot saramman deo omyeon sijakalgeyo
Once a few more people arrive, we'll start.
So 몇 명 is "how many people?" as a stressed question but "a few people" as an offhand statement — and 며칠 is likewise both "what date?" and "a few days."
Common Mistakes
1. ×얼마 + counter. This is the error. 얼마 never takes a counter; counting discrete things is 몇's job.
- ✗ 사과 얼마 개 있어요?
- ✓ 사과 몇 개 있어요? — "How many apples are there?"
2. Using 몇 to ask a price. A price is an amount of money, so it's 얼마, not 몇. (몇 원 is grammatical but means "how many won, exactly?" — a counting question, not the everyday "how much is it?")
- ✗ 이거 몇이에요? (for "how much is this?")
- ✓ 이거 얼마예요?
3. Using 얼마 for duration or degree. "How long does it take?" is extent, so it needs the adverb 얼마나, not bare 얼마.
- ✗ 시간이 얼마 걸려요?
- ✓ 시간이 얼마나 걸려요? — "How long does it take?"
4. Spelling the date word as ×몇 일. The word for "what date / how many days" is the fixed form 며칠.
- ✗ 오늘 몇 일이에요?
- ✓ 오늘 며칠이에요?
5. Dropping the counter after 몇. 몇 wants a counter; a bare 몇 with a bare noun sounds unfinished.
- ✗ 커피 몇 마셨어요?
- ✓ 커피 몇 잔 마셨어요? — "How many cups of coffee did you drink?"
Key Takeaways
- 몇 = "how many" for countable things, always with a counter (몇 개, 몇 명, 몇 시, 몇 살); the answer is a number.
- 얼마 = "how much" for price / amount, with no counter (얼마예요?).
- 얼마나 = the adverb for extent / duration / frequency / degree (얼마나 걸려요?, 얼마나 자주).
- 몇 also means the indefinite "a few / several" (몇 명, 며칠) when it's unstressed.
- The word for date is the irregular 며칠, never ×몇 일.
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