Punctuation 문장 부호

Good news first: modern Korean punctuation (문장 부호) will feel familiar. Korea writes horizontally, left to right, and uses the same period, comma, question mark, and exclamation point you already know. You can transfer most of your English habits directly. The work on this page is the small set of marks that are genuinely Korean — the interpunct ·, the wave dash ~, and the CJK bracket family 「」 『』 《》 〈〉 — because these appear constantly on signs, in dictionaries, in the news, and in books, yet have no tidy English counterpart.

The marks that are just like English

These work as you expect. The one habit to import cleanly is spacing: like English, Korean puts no space before a mark and one space after it.

The comma sits tight against 안녕하세요 with a space after it, and the period closes the sentence — exactly the English pattern.

The interpunct 가운뎃점 (·): tight lists and paired items

The 가운뎃점 is a raised dot that links items belonging together as a tight unit — a short list of parallel words, or two closely paired concepts. Think of it as a "and/or these go together" glue, tighter than a comma. It takes no space on either side.

You will also meet the interpunct in the names of historical events, where it joins a month and a day: 3·1 운동 (the March First Movement), 6·25 (the Korean War, "6·25" = June 25).

The wave dash 물결표 (~): ranges (and a soft tone in chat)

The 물결표 marks a range — "from X to Y" — where English would use an en dash or the word "to." It sits with no space between the two endpoints.

Note the culturally-real reading: 6월 is 유월 and 7월 is 칠월 (see dates). You will see the wave dash on opening hours (9시~18시), price ranges, and page ranges throughout everyday Korean. It has a second life in informal texting, where a trailing ~ softens the tone, stretching a word into something warm and casual:

Quotation and title marks: Western quotes plus a CJK bracket family

For quoting speech, modern Korean uses either Western quotation marks or the CJK 낫표 brackets. The everyday default in horizontal text is the double quote 큰따옴표 (“ ”) for speech and single quote 작은따옴표 (‘ ’) for a quote-within-a-quote or for emphasis. Note these are the curved typographic marks — “ ” and ‘ ’ — not the straight typewriter ".

The bracket 낫표 「」 (and its double 겹낫표 『』) does the same job and is common on signage, in literature, and in more traditional or emphatic contexts:

For titles, Korean has dedicated marks — a habit English lacks (English uses italics or quotation marks instead). The 겹화살괄호 《 》 wraps the title of a whole work (a book, newspaper, album), and the 홑화살괄호 〈 〉 wraps the title of a smaller piece within it (a poem, song, article, artwork):

One thing NOT to do: the vertical-script marks 。 and 、

Older Korean — and any text set vertically, top-to-bottom — used the East Asian full-stop 。 (a small circle) and the ideographic comma 、, just as Chinese and Japanese still do. Modern horizontal Korean does not. In ordinary present-day prose you use the Western period . and comma ,, never 。 or 、. Reaching for 。/、 because "it's an Asian language" is a giveaway of a non-native writer.

The ellipsis and dash

Two more you will see often: the 줄임표 (ellipsis) is traditionally six dots …… (two ellipsis characters), used for a trailing-off or omitted text, though three dots … is now widely accepted; and the 줄표 (—, an em-length dash) sets off an inserted remark, like the English em dash. Both follow essentially English usage, so they need no special drilling.

Common Mistakes

1. Using the vertical-script marks in modern horizontal prose. Use Western . and ,.

• ✗ 저는 학생입니다。 → ✓ 저는 학생입니다.
• ✗ 사과、배、귤 → ✓ 사과, 배, 귤 (or with interpunct: 사과·배·귤)

2. Putting a space before a mark. Korean, like English, attaches the mark to the preceding word and spaces after.

• ✗ 안녕하세요 . → ✓ 안녕하세요.
• ✗ 정말요 ? → ✓ 정말요?

3. Spacing the interpunct or wave dash. Both marks hug their neighbors with no surrounding space.

• ✗ 봄 · 여름 · 가을 · 겨울 → ✓ 봄·여름·가을·겨울
• ✗ 6월 ~ 7월 → ✓ 6월~7월

4. Using an English hyphen for a range instead of the wave dash. Ranges take ~, not a hyphen.

• ✗ 3-5시 → ✓ 3~5시 ("3 to 5 o'clock")

5. Using quote brackets 「」 for a book title. Whole works take the arrow brackets 《 》; the smaller 〈 〉 is for a piece within.

• ✗ 「토지」를 읽었어요 → ✓ 《토지》를 읽었어요 ("I read 'Toji'")

Key Takeaways

• Modern Korean is horizontal and uses Western . , ? ! — transfer your habits, and remember no space before a mark, one space after.
• The 가운뎃점 · links tight lists and paired items (봄·여름·가을·겨울, 3·1 운동), with no spaces.
• The 물결표 ~ marks ranges (6월~7월, 9시~18시) and, informally, a soft trailing tone in chat.
• Quotes: Western " " / ' ' or the CJK 낫표 「」. Titles: 《 》 for whole works, 〈 〉 for pieces within.
• Do not use the vertical-script marks 。 / 、 in ordinary modern prose.