Word Spacing 띄어쓰기: Korean Has Spaces

If you have looked at Chinese or Japanese, you know that they run their characters together with no spaces at all — a wall of text your eye has to segment on its own. Korean is different: it uses genuine, rule-governed word spacing (띄어쓰기), an actual space between words. For an English speaker this is a relief — you already rely on spaces to parse a sentence, and Korean gives you that crutch. But the boundaries fall in unexpected places, and putting a space in the wrong spot can turn one sentence into a completely different one. This page teaches where the spaces go.

The spacing unit is the 어절, not the English word

The chunk that sits between two spaces in Korean is roughly the 어절 ("word-segment"): a content word plus everything grammatically glued onto it — its particles and its verb endings. So a Korean sentence has fewer, fatter chunks than the English translation has words.

English needs five words ("I go to school"); Korean needs three chunks: 나는 / 학교에 / 가요. Look at what got swallowed. 나는 is 나 ("I") + the topic particle 는. 학교에 is 학교 ("school") + the particle 에 ("to"). What English writes as two separate words — "to school" — Korean writes as one chunk, because the particle 에 is not a word; it is a suffix that clings to its noun. The verb 가요 is one chunk too, stem plus ending fused.

Chunks: 저는 / 매일 / 커피를 / 마셔요. Again the particles (는, 를) ride along with their nouns, while the free adverb 매일 ("every day") stands as its own chunk.

Four chunks: 언니는 / 도서관에서 / 책을 / 읽어요. Every particle (는, 에서, 을) is fused to its noun, and the verb is one chunk. Wherever you would use a preposition in English — "at the library" — Korean has already absorbed it into the noun's chunk.

The official rule behind this is compact. Korean orthography (한글 맞춤법 제2항) says each word is written with a space — but 제41항 immediately adds that particles (조사) attach to the word before them. Put together: space between words, but glue the particles and endings on. That single pair of rules generates most of what you see.

Where the space falls can change the meaning

Because spacing marks the boundaries your brain uses to parse, moving a space can produce a different — sometimes absurd — sentence. This is the classic Korean demonstration of why 띄어쓰기 matters. It is written here in the plain narrative style (한다체, the register of storytelling and print):

The syllables are identical; only the space moved. In the first, 아버지가 is "father" + subject particle 가, and 방에 is "room" + 에 — Father enters the room. In the second, the space slides one syllable to the right: now 아버지 stands alone ("father('s)") and 가방에 is 가방 ("bag") + 에 — goes into the bag. One misplaced space, and a dignified father is climbing into luggage. Here is a real, everyday pair you might actually get wrong in a text message:

Written solid, 잘못했어요 is the verb 잘못하다 ("to do wrong, to be at fault") — an apology. Written with a space, 잘 못했어요 is the adverb 잘 ("well") plus 못하다 ("cannot/didn't manage") — "I couldn't do it well." Same sounds, opposite social move: one confesses a fault, the other just rates a performance.

Why English speakers find the boundaries surprising

The relief of "Korean has spaces!" comes with two adjustments. First, particles glue on. Your English instinct treats "to," "from," "of" as free words, so you will be tempted to write ×학교 에 as two chunks. In Korean the location marker is a suffix — 학교에 is one chunk, full stop. (This is the single most common spacing error, and it has its own page.)

Second, some things English writes solid, Korean spaces off. Dependent ("bound") nouns like 것, 수, 때 and number-plus-counter phrases each take a space, so "I can do it" is 할 수 있어요 (three chunks) and "one apple" is 사과 한 개 (three chunks). That, too, gets a full treatment on the particle-attachment page.

Chunks: 주말에 / 친구를 / 만날 / 수 / 있어요. The bound noun 수 sits in its own space even though it means nothing on its own.

Honest caveat: even Koreans find this hard

띄어쓰기 has a reputation, deservedly, as one of the hardest parts of writing Korean correctly — for native speakers. The official rules run to dozens of clauses and include explicit tolerances (허용): cases where two spacings are both accepted. For example, a number written with a counter may be spaced (사과 한 개) or, by tolerance, attached (사과 한개); auxiliary verbs and some proper-noun strings likewise have accepted variants. So do not panic if you see the "same" phrase spaced two ways in the wild — sometimes both are correct. Aim for the principled spacing, and know that a few gray zones are gray for everyone.

Common Mistakes

1. Spacing a particle off its noun (English-preposition transfer). The particle is a suffix; it stays attached.

• ✗ 학교 에 가요 → ✓ 학교에 가요 ("I go to school")
• ✗ 저 는 학생이에요 → ✓ 저는 학생이에요 ("I'm a student")

2. Running the whole sentence together — over-correcting because "East Asian languages don't use spaces." Korean does.

• ✗ 나는학교에가요 → ✓ 나는 학교에 가요

3. Splitting a verb stem from its ending. The ending is glued on just like a particle.

• ✗ 먹었 어요 → ✓ 먹었어요 ("I ate")
• ✗ 가고 있 어요 → ✓ 가고 있어요 ("I'm going")

4. Gluing a bound noun to the word before it. 수, 것, 때 keep their space.

• ✗ 할수있어요 → ✓ 할 수 있어요 ("I can do it")

5. Putting a space before a comma or period. Korean, like English, attaches the punctuation mark to the preceding word and spaces after it.

• ✗ 안녕하세요 . → ✓ 안녕하세요.

Key Takeaways

• Korean uses real spaces, unlike Chinese and Japanese — but the unit is the 어절 (content word + glued particles/endings), not the English word.
• Core rule: space between words; attach particles (조사) and verb endings with no space. So 학교에 ("to school") is one chunk.
• Spacing carries meaning: 아버지가 방에 vs 아버지 가방에, and 잘못했어요 vs 잘 못했어요.
• Some English-solid things get a space in Korean — bound nouns (할 수 있다) and number+counter (사과 한 개) — covered on Particles Attach; Bound Nouns & Counters Take a Space.
• Even native speakers find 띄어쓰기 hard, and the official rules include tolerances; when unsure, keep content words spaced and never detach a particle.