세

Jeju

Etymology

Cognate with Korean 새 (sae).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /se/

Noun

세 (se)

1. (seamen's) east, east wind

Determiner

세 (se)

1. new

Korean

Etymology 1

First attested in the Yongbi eocheon'ga (龍飛御天歌 / 용비어천가), 1447, as Middle Korean 세〯 (Yale: sěy).

Beyond Middle Korean, the reconstruction of the ancestral Koreanic root for "three" is difficult. See a list of relevant attestations and forms in Appendix:Historical Koreanic numerals#Three.

Pronunciation

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key):
• Phonetic hangul:
  • Though still prescribed in Standard Korean, most speakers in both Koreas no longer distinguish vowel length.

Numeral

세 • (se)

1. (native numeral) three (before a noun or classifier)

   학생 세 명

   haksaeng se myeong

   three students

   비둘기 세 마리

   bidulgi se mari

   three pigeons

Usage notes

In modern Korean, numbers are usually written in Arabic numerals.

The Korean language has two sets of numerals: a native set of numerals inherited from Old Korean, and a Sino-Korean set which was borrowed from Middle Chinese in the first millennium C.E.

Native classifiers take native numerals.

• 개 한 마리 (gae han mari, “one dog”, native numeral)
• 나무 두 그루 (namu du geuru, “two trees”, native numeral)

Some Sino-Korean classifiers take native numerals, others take Sino-Korean numerals, while yet others take both.

• 종이 두 장(張) (jong'i du jang, “two sheets of paper”, native numeral)
• 이 분(分) (i bun, “two minutes”, Sino-Korean numeral)
• 서른/삼십 명(名) (seoreun/samsip myeong, “thirty people”, both sets possible)

Recently loaned classifiers generally take Sino-Korean numerals.

• 일 킬로미터 (il killomiteo, “one kilometer”, Sino-Korean numeral)

For many terms, a native numeral has a quantifying sense, whereas a Sino-Korean numeral has a sense of labeling.

• 세 반(班) (se ban, “three school classes”, native numeral)
• 삼 반(班) (sam ban, “Class Number Three”, Sino-Korean numeral)

When used in isolation, native numerals refer to objects of that number and are used in counting and quantifying, whereas Sino-Korean numerals refer to the numbers in a more mathematical sense.

• 하나만 더 주세요 (hana-man deo juse-yo, “Could you give me just one more, please”, native numeral)
• 일 더하기 일은? (il deohagi ir-eun?, “What's one plus one?”, Sino-Korean numeral)

While older stages of Korean had native numerals up to the thousands, native numerals currently exist only up to ninety-nine, and Sino-Korean is used for all higher numbers. There is also a tendency—particularly among younger speakers—to uniformly use Sino-Korean numerals for the higher tens as well, so that native numerals such as 일흔 (ilheun, “seventy”) or 아흔 (aheun, “ninety”) are becoming less common.

Etymology 2

Related to 혀 (hyeo).

Pronunciation

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key):
• Phonetic hangul:

Noun

세 • (se)

1. (Gangwon, Gyeongsang, Seoul, Jeolla dialect, Chungcheong, Hamgyong, Yukjin, Hwanghae) Dialectal form of 혀 (hyeo, “tongue”)
   • 1982 January 8, 이상설 [isangseol], “오리정승의 국량 [orijeongseung'ui gungnyang]”, in 한국구비문학대계 [han'gukgubimunhakdaegye]‎, 경기도 용인군 내사면 (현 용인시 처인구 양지면) [gyeonggido yong'in'gun naesamyeon (hyeon yong'insi cheoin'gu yangjimyeon)]:

     그래니까 오리정승 (이원익) 말씀이 세를 세 번 차더라 이거야.

     Geurae-nikka orijeongseung (I Won-ik) malsseum-i se-reul se beon chadeora igeo-ya.

     So Prime Minister Ori (Yi Won-ik) clicked his tongue three times.

Etymology 3

Korean reading of various Chinese characters.

Syllable

세 (se)