No. 123Language3 minviews 34
Published by GK Library Annex
How many days off is a 「sahul」 holiday?
One line in a holiday news story once sent a word to the top of Korea's trending searches. The mix-up came down to a single syllable.
「Sahul」 (사흘) means three days. It is the third word in the native Korean way of counting days, haru, iteul, sahul, naheul, so a 「sahul holiday」 means three days off. The first syllable, 「sa」, sounds like the Sino-Korean number sa (四), which means four, so it is easy to mistake it for four days.
The day it topped the searches
On July 21, 2020, the Korean government made Monday, August 17, a temporary public holiday. Many news stories described the break, running from Liberation Day on Saturday through Monday, as a 「sahul holiday」.
Comments soon appeared asking, 「Saturday, Sunday, Monday is three days, so why sahul?」 and 「Isn't that a typo?」, and 「sahul」 even reached No. 1 on Naver's rising search terms. The stories were correct. The people who got it wrong were the ones reading 「sa」 as the number four.
Counting up to ten days
In native Korean, the days go haru, iteul, sahul, naheul, datsae, yeotsae, ire, yeodeure, aheure, yeolheul. Each word starts with a sound similar to the native Korean number it matches, dul and iteul for two, set and sahul for three, net and naheul for four, daseot and datsae for five, so pairing them makes them easy to remember.
After ten days you add 「yeol」 in front, as in yeolharu and yeoriteul, and the fifteenth day has its own name, 「boreum」. The twentieth day is 「seumunal」. These day-counting words are native Korean and have nothing to do with the Sino-Korean numbers.
「For sahul」 versus 「sahul later」
「Sahul dongan」 means for three whole days. Starting Monday, it covers Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. 「Sahul dwi」 means three days later, so three days after Monday is Thursday.
There are also words that point to specific days. After today comes naeil (tomorrow), then more (the day after tomorrow), then geulpi and geugeulpi. The dictionary says 「naeilmore」 means the same day as more, but people also use it loosely to mean 「soon」.
How to avoid the mix-up
When dates matter, such as for plans or deadlines, writing the number alongside, as in 「sahul (3 days)」, or giving the dates directly, as in 「from the 15th to the 17th」, leaves no room for confusion. It helps most when posting a schedule in a group chat. When saying it out loud, adding 「sahul, that is, three days」 makes it easier for the listener.
And if someone says 「sahul」 and you are not sure, think of the native Korean number 「set」, three. The 「sa」 in sahul is not the sa for four. It is the sound that pairs with set.
Related reads
Sahul is three days and naheul is four. Pair them with the native numbers, set for sahul and net for naheul, and they are much harder to mix up.
Notes and references · Standard Korean Dictionary · July 2020 news. Based on the Standard Korean Language Dictionary entry for 「sahul」 (three days), Seoul Shinmun and JoongAng Ilbo reports from July 21, 2020, and the Basic Korean Dictionary entries for more and geulpi. Detailed word origins are not covered.
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