How to Say Year in Korean: 년, Birth Years and 2026

What you'll learn

• Read any calendar year aloud with 년, including years such as 1999 and 2010.
• Say this year, last year, next year and the years on either side of them.
• Give and ask a birth year with 년생.
• Tell 2026년 (a year) from 2년 (two years).

Prerequisites: Sino-Korean numbers 1-100. Estimated time: 30 minutes.

How to Say Year in Korean

To say a year in Korean, read the digits as one Sino-Korean number and add 년 (nyeon). Sino-Korean numbers are the numbers borrowed from Chinese: 일, 이, 삼, 사, 오. The pattern is Sino number + 년.

Native Korean numbers such as 스물 and 서른 never name calendar years. So 스물여섯 년 is not a way to say 26 and not a way to say 2026. The next section shows how to build each reading step by step.

How Do You Read Years Aloud?

To read a year aloud, split it by place value, say each part as a Sino-Korean number and finish with 년. The year 2026 splits into 2,000 + 20 + 6, which is 이천 + 이십 + 육. Korean joins the parts without spaces in writing and says them in one flow.

Two rules save you from mistakes. First, Korean drops the 일 (one) before 천, 백 and 만 in ordinary numbers, so 1999 starts with 천, not 일천. Second, a zero in the middle is simply skipped, so 2008 is 이천팔 and there is no word for the zero.

The numbers you need for the 1900s and 2000s are covered in detail on large numbers in Korean. Now you can read a year. Next, the words that avoid numbers completely.

How Do You Say This Year, Last Year and Next Year?

To say this year, last year and next year, use the dedicated words 올해, 작년 and 내년. These words replace the number and are used far more often than numeric years in conversation.

The word 지난해 is a written alternative for 작년, common in news. The formal word for this year is 금년, which appears in letters and announcements. In conversation, 올해 is the default.

Here are the words inside sentences.

• 올해 한국에 갔어요. (I went to Korea this year.)
• 작년에 한국어를 시작했어요. (I started Korean last year.)
• 내년에 졸업해요. (I graduate next year.)

The particle 에 can follow all three words to mean "in" (작년에, 내년에, 올해에), and in speech it is often dropped, most often after 올해. After years, the next question is about the year a person was born.

How Do You Say a Birth Year?

To say a birth year, add 년생 after the year: 1999년생 or 99년생 means "born in 1999". Read it as a Sino-Korean number and then 년생: 구십구 년생. The question is 몇 년생이세요? (What year were you born?).

Here is a short dialogue between two people who just met.

• 지수: 몇 년생이세요? (What year were you born?)
• 민호: 구십구 년생이에요. 지수 씨는요? (I was born in 1999. And you?)
• 지수: 저는 이천 년생이에요. (I was born in 2000.)

An alternative is 몇 년에 태어났어요? (In what year were you born?), which answers with 구십구 년에 태어났어요. The word 태어나다 means "to be born". Both forms are common. Koreans often use the birth year to work out age, because the standard way of counting age has changed, as explained on how to say age in Korean.

For a birth-year conversation, keep the year and the age separate. The birth year stays the same every year, while a person’s current age changes. The dialogue above gives you a polite question and a complete answer; practise those before adding a comparison about being the same age. This makes the exchange useful without needing extra calendar information.

People born in the same year are 동갑 (the same age), and 저랑 동갑이에요 means "You are the same age as me". Birth year often shapes whether two new acquaintances move to casual speech, which is why the question comes up so early in a first meeting.

Short Forms and What They Hide

Koreans often shorten years to two digits in speech and writing: 99년생, 26년. This works well for birth years because the century is obvious, but it can hide meaning in other settings. The text 26년 can mean the year 2026 or a span of 26 years. Context decides, and writers add 20 when they want to be exact: 2026년.

For people born near the turn of the century, the full form 2000년생 avoids confusion, which is why 이천 년생 is the clearest spoken form for someone born in 2000. The two-digit form 00년생 is also common in writing, and in speech it is read digit by digit as 공공 년생. Next, look at how 년 sounds.

How Is 년 Pronounced after Different Numbers?

The syllable 년 is pronounced [년] by itself, but it changes after some final consonants. This is a regular effect of the National Institute of Korean Language (국립국어원) standard pronunciation rules (표준 발음법), not an exception.

You do not need to memorize these shifts. Say the phrase at normal speed and your mouth does the same thing. The table matters mainly when you hear 이천이십육 년 and wonder why the sound at the end seems to be [융년].

Year Versus Counted Years

A year as a date and a number of years use the same pattern, Sino-Korean number + 년, and only context separates them. 2026년 is the calendar year 2026, while 2년 or 이 년 means two years. The counter 년 is covered on the 년 counter page.

The words 해 and 년 also differ. 해 is a native noun that means the year as a stretch of time, as in 새해 (new year) and 한 해 (one year). 년 is the unit after a number. The page year in Korean compares the two words as vocabulary, while this page teaches how to say actual years.

A spelling detail: after a number, a school or financial year is written 년도, as in 2026년도. By itself, the word is 연도, as in 졸업 연도 (graduation year).

Era Names in Context

Korean also has older era names. 서기 (Western era) writes the common year, as in 서기 2026년, and appears in formal or historical writing. 단기 (the Dangi era) counts from a legendary founding date, and its year is the common year plus 2333, so 2026 is 단기 4359년. You will mostly meet 단기 in history lessons, not daily life. Everyday Korean uses the plain Western year.

How Do You Ask What Year It Is?

To ask what year it is, say 올해는 몇 년이에요? (What year is it this year?). The answer repeats the pattern: 올해는 이천이십육 년이에요. The word 몇 means "which number", so 몇 년 asks for a year, and 몇 년도 is a more formal version that asks for the year of a record or event.

Notice that the particle 에 follows the year when the year answers "when did it happen?", as in 이천십오 년에 졸업했어요. The particle 은/는 follows 올해 when the sentence names the year as the topic. Note that the answer to "what year is it now?" changes every January, so the sentence 올해는 이천이십육 년이에요 is true only during 2026.

Years inside Everyday Sentences

Years appear in sentences about birth, school, work and history. The patterns below keep 에 after the year and put the verb at the end.

The alphabet taught on this site, 한글, was created under King Sejong in 1443 and announced in 1446, which is why the sentence about it is a useful fixed phrase. Its numeral 천사백사십육 is a good reading drill: 천 (1,000), 사백 (400), 사십 (40), 육 (6).

How Do You Say Decades and Centuries?

To say a decade, add 년대 to the Sino-Korean number: 구십 년대 means the 1990s and 이천 년대 means the 2000s. To say a century, use 세기: 이십일 세기 is the 21st century. Koreans use these forms when they talk about music, films and fashion of a period.

Notice that 구십 년대 uses the short two-digit decade, not 천구백구십 년대. That is the same habit as 99년생 above: when the century is obvious, speakers drop it.

Which Words Describe Parts of a Year?

Besides numbers, Korean has short words for the start, the end and the turn of a year. These words appear in news, workplaces and greetings, and they use 년 or 해 in familiar ways.

The standard New Year greeting is 새해 복 많이 받으세요, which literally asks the listener to "receive many blessings in the new year". Koreans say it from the last days of December through the first days of January, and again around 설날 (Lunar New Year). Notice that 연초 and 연말 use the Chinese-origin syllable 연 (年, the same character as 년, written 연 at the start of a word), while 새해 and 해마다 use the native word 해. This is the same split you saw above between 년 and 해, and it is why a learner meets both forms in everyday speech.

Common Mistakes and Fixes

Six errors cover most wrong years. Read the wrong form first, then the fix.

1. Saying 일천 or 일백. Wrong: 일천구백구십구 년. Fix: 천구백구십구 년.
2. Using native numbers. Wrong: 스물여섯 년. Fix: 이천이십육 년.
3. Using a relative word with 년. Wrong: 올 년, 작 년. Fix: 올해, 작년.
4. Reading 26년 as always meaning a year. Fix: add 20 or check the context.
5. Pronouncing every 년 the same. Fix: 십 년 is [심년], 육 년 is [융년].
6. Answering a birth-year question with a bare year. 구십구 년이에요 sounds like a statement about the year 1999 itself. Fix: add 생 and say 구십구 년생이에요, or use 에 태어났어요.

Honest limits. This page covers saying years, not full dates. Spoken readings of dates such as 2026년 10월 8일 and the rules for months and days are on the Korean date format page. For counted years with 몇 년 and the pattern 일 년, 이 년, 십 년, see the 년 counter lesson.

Practice Set

Answer each item before you read the answer line.

1. Say 2026 in Korean.
2. Say "last year" and "next year" in Korean.
3. Read the year 2008 aloud.
4. Ask someone's birth year politely.
5. Correct the mistake: 일천구백팔십팔 년.
6. Say "I was born in 1999" in Korean.
7. Say "the year after next" in Korean.
8. Say "in the 1990s" in Korean.

Answers:

1. 이천이십육 년.
2. 작년 (last year) and 내년 (next year).
3. 이천팔 년. The zero in 2008 is skipped.
4. 몇 년생이세요?
5. 천구백팔십팔 년. Drop the 일 before 천.
6. 저는 구십구 년생이에요. You can also say 저는 1999년생이에요.
7. 내후년. It is the year after next, so 2028 if this year is 2026.
8. 구십 년대에. Add 에 for "in" the decade.

If you got six or more, you are ready to move on.

What to Learn Next

You now know how to say year in Korean: Sino-Korean number plus 년, with relative words and 년생 for birth years. Continue in this order:

• Korean days of the month for the 1일 to 31일 list, which comes next in the dates section.
• Korean date format for putting year, month and day together.
• The 년 counter for counting years such as 이 년 and 십 년.
• How to say age in Korean for the relation between birth year and age.
• Dates in Korean for the full section of date pages.

Frequently Asked Questions