If you’ve already learned Korean numbers and studied hard, but still struggle when talking about amounts or sizes, today’s lesson will be super helpful for you.
Have you ever learned the words 쯤, 만큼, and 만하다? They all seem quite similar, but their usages are slightly different. Let’s learn them through real-life sentences.
- 오후 한 시쯤 오세요. (Come around 1 p.m.)
The 쯤 must always be attached directly to the preceding word without a space. Since it doesn’t point to an exact, sharp time, saying 한 시쯤 means any time from a few minutes before 1:00 to a few minutes after 1:00 is perfectly fine.
You can also attach 쯤 to words like 이, 그, and 저. As you study Korean more, you’ll notice that native speakers use the word 이쯤 surprisingly often—not just to point to a physical location, but also to a point in time.
For example, if someone says:
- 이쯤에서 쉴까요? (Shall we take a break here/now?)
it can mean two things depending on the context. It can mean “at this physical spot,” or it can mean “at this current moment.”
Here is a sentence I use all the time:
- 그만큼만 주세요. 다 못 먹어요.” (Just give me that much. I can’t eat it all.)
I don’t eat very big portions, but when older Korean adults serve me food, they always pile it high on the plate! So, while they are scooping the food onto my plate, I use this phrase to tell them to stop. Since it’s hard to measure the exact weight or volume of the food in that exact second, we use 만큼 to mean “up to that amount.”
- 나 오늘 연예인 봤어. 얼굴이 진짜 요만했어! (I saw a celebrity today. The face was literally this small!)
The verb form 만하다 is closely related to the particle 만 (which means “only”). When 만 is attached to a noun, it means it never exceeds the size or scope of that noun. It works the exact same way when it takes a verb form.
In this example, saying 요만했어 creating a tiny circle with your hands emphasizes that the celebrity’s face was strictly no bigger than that tiny circle.