Particles Attach; Bound Nouns & Counters Take a Space

Once you know that Korean uses spaces, exactly one rule causes the majority of learners' spacing errors, and it is worth isolating on its own page. Particles (조사) and verb endings attach to the word before them with no space; almost everything else takes a space. The tricky part is that two categories which feel like they should attach — dependent nouns and counters — actually take a space, precisely because they are (dependent) nouns, not particles. Get this contrast right and your spacing will look native.

Particles and endings glue on — they are suffixes, not words

A Korean particle has no independent existence. You cannot say 는, 을, or 에서 by itself and mean anything; each only lives fused to a noun. So the topic, subject, object, and location markers all cling with no space:

저는 is 저 + 는; 커피를 is 커피 + 를; 학교에서 is 학교 + 에서. Each is a single chunk. And when several particles stack, they all stay glued in one long chunk — the spacing does not reopen between them:

친구들한테서도 is 친구 + 들 (plural) + 한테서 (from) + 도 (too) — four pieces, zero spaces. Verb endings behave identically; the ending is fused to the stem, never spaced off:

Here 밥을 (밥 + 을) is one chunk and 먹고 (stem 먹- + ending -고) is one chunk. The auxiliary 있어요 is a separate word, so it is spaced — but the ending -고 inside 먹고 never detaches.

Bound nouns take a space — because they are still nouns

Now the mirror image. Korean has a class of dependent (bound) nouns (의존명사) — 것 ("thing"), 수 ("way/possibility"), 때 ("time/when"), 데 ("place/case"), 줄 ("the fact/way") — that also cannot stand alone: they always need a modifier in front. That makes them feel like suffixes, so learners glue them on. But grammatically they are nouns, and the rule (한글 맞춤법 제42항) is explicit: dependent nouns are spaced from the word before them.

Notice the pattern: a verb in its attributive form (만날, 먹을, 갈) modifies the bound noun, and there is a space before 수, 것, 때. This is the exact opposite of a particle. The test is: is the little word a noun (even a dependent one) or a particle? 수/것/때/데/줄 are nouns → space; 는/을/에서/도 are particles → no space.

Counters take a space from their number

The same logic extends to counters (단위 명사) — 개 (things), 명 (people), 시간 (hours), 마리 (animals), and so on. A counter is a kind of unit noun, so the standard rule (한글 맞춤법 제43항) spaces it from the number in front:

So 한 개, 열 명, 세 시간 — number and counter are separate chunks. (Particles still glue on: in 한 개만 the 만 attaches to 개, and in 열 명이 the 이 attaches to 명 — the counter is spaced from the number, but its own particle rides along.) The word-order and full counter system are covered on Number + counter: order and spacing.

The one tolerated exception: because number-plus-counter is such a tight unit, the rules permit attaching a counter when it follows a figure written in digits, and in a few fixed patterns. So 사과 한 개 (the principled spacing) and 사과 한개 (tolerated) are both accepted, and with Arabic numerals 10개, 3시간, 5명 are routinely written solid. Ordinals and clock times have similar tolerances (제3장 or 제 3 장; 두 시 or 두시). Don't let this shake you — the default is a space; attaching is the licensed shortcut, not the rule.

Why this specific contrast trips English speakers

Two English habits collide with Korean here. English prepositions ("to," "at," "from") are free-standing words with their own space, which pushes you to space off Korean particles that must stay glued — hence ×밥 을, ×학교 에서. At the same time, English writes many bound-noun-like meanings solid or with no separate slot ("can do," "something to eat"), which pushes you to glue Korean bound nouns that must be spaced — hence ×할수있다. The two errors are opposite in direction but come from the same root cause: importing English word boundaries. The cure is the part-of-speech test above.

Common Mistakes

1. Spacing a particle off its noun — the most frequent 띄어쓰기 error, driven by English prepositions.

• ✗ 밥 을 먹어요 → ✓ 밥을 먹어요 ("I eat rice")
• ✗ 학교 에서 공부해요 → ✓ 학교에서 공부해요 ("I study at school")

2. Gluing a bound noun to the modifier before it. 수, 것, 때, 데, 줄 keep their space.

• ✗ 할수있어요 → ✓ 할 수 있어요 ("I can do it")
• ✗ 갈때 → ✓ 갈 때 ("when (I) go")
• ✗ 먹을것 → ✓ 먹을 것 ("something to eat")

3. Detaching a verb ending. The ending is a suffix, like a particle.

• ✗ 먹었 어요 → ✓ 먹었어요 ("I ate")
• ✗ 가 세요 → ✓ 가세요 ("please go")

4. Gluing a counter to its number as the default. Attaching is only a tolerance; the principled form is spaced.

• ✗ 사과한개 → ✓ 사과 한 개 (사과 한개 is tolerated, but 사과 한 개 is the rule)
• ✗ 세명 → ✓ 세 명 ("three people")

5. Breaking up a stack of particles. Stacked particles stay in one chunk.

• ✗ 친구들 한테서 도 → ✓ 친구들한테서도 ("from my friends too")

Key Takeaways

• Particles (조사) and verb endings attach with no space (저는, 밥을, 학교에서, 먹었어요); stacked particles all stay glued (친구들한테서도).
• Dependent nouns (의존명사) — 것, 수, 때, 데, 줄 — take a space before them (할 수 있다, 먹을 것, 갈 때), because they are nouns, not particles.
• Counters take a space from their number (사과 한 개, 열 명, 세 시간); attaching is a tolerated exception, especially after digits (10개).
• The decision rule: sort the little word by part of speech — particle (glue) vs (dependent) noun (space) — not by how small it looks.