Pluralizing a word/item isn’t as tricky as you might expect! Using 들 Korean plural particle can help you express multiples and emphasize the amount as much as you want.
Making Korean Plural Words
There are 2 main ways to make plural words in Korean. First is by simply adding a number; for example “가방 두개” (lit. bag 2) simply translates as “2 bags” without the need to add anything else to pluralize it.
The second option is using 들, which can make a word plural without any numbers, and be used to emphasize that it is multiple. Also, this particle doesn’t change depending on what comes before, which is a big relief if you’ve touched on my post about all the various number counter particles in Korean!
들 is useful for describing a group, and clarifies if you are talking about 1 or multiple. People don’t really use it for countable things unless to emphasize it.
그 학생은 열심히 공부하고 있어요: that student is studying hard
그 학생들은 열심히 공부하고 있어요: those students are studying hard
아이가 집에서 놀고 있어요: a child is playing at home
아이들이 집에서 놀고 있어요: children are playing at home
쿠키를 많이 만들었어요: I made a lot of cookies
쿠키들을 많이 만들었어요: I made a ton of cookies
들 Korean plural particle is used with pronouns as well!
- 우리 – 우리들 we
- 저희 – 저희들 we (formal)
- 너희 – 너희들 you all (informal)
More Examples Sentences:
어른이 되면, 사람들 너무 바빠요: when you become an adult, people are so busy.
저 책들은 꼭 읽어봐야죠 – I have to read those books
요즘 한국어를 배우는 사람들이 많이 있습니다. these days, there are many people learning Korean.
Words Where Pluralization is Awkward
Luckily similarly to English, the words we don’t pluralize match up to the Korean words. We don’t say “you have a lot of waters” for example and Koreans don’t either.
- 돈: money
- 물: water
- 하늘: sky
- 공기: air
- 음식: food
- 우유: milk
- 꿀: honey
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