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Korean Spacing Rules: A Beginner's Guide

Korean spacing trips up even native speakers — these six rules cover the essentials. Tap each step for details.

  1. Particles attach to the word before them

    Particles like 이/가 (subject marker), 을/를 (object marker), 은/는 (topic marker), 에서 (at/from), and 까지 (until) are technically separate grammatical words, but they're always written attached directly to the word before them, with no space. It's 학교에서 (hakgyo-eseo, "at school"), never 학교 에서, and 집까지 (jip-kkaji, "until home"), never 집 까지.

  2. Dependent nouns get a space

    Words like 수 ("way/possibility"), 것 ("thing"), 데 ("place/situation"), 만큼 ("as much as"), and 뿐 ("only") can't stand alone — they lean on the word before them — but grammatically they're still full nouns, so a space comes before them. It's 할 수 있다 (hal su itda, "can do it"), never 할수있다, and 아는 것 (aneun geot, "the thing [I] know"), never 아는것.

  3. Counter words are spaced from the number

    Nouns that count units — 개 ("item"), 명 ("person"), 살 ("years old"), 시간 ("hour"), 마리 ("animal") — are written with a space after the number modifying them in principle: 한 개 (han gae, "one item"), never 한개; 세 시간 (se sigan, "three hours"), never 세시간. Writing them attached is accepted when the number is ordinal or written with Arabic numerals, like 3시간.

  4. Auxiliary verbs: spaced in principle, attached is also allowed

    An auxiliary verb following a main verb — like 보다 in 먹어 보다 ("try eating") or 가다 in 읽어 가다 ("keep reading") — is spaced by the main rule, but writing it attached (먹어보다, 읽어가다) is also officially accepted. The one firm exception: if the main verb is itself a compound word, or has a particle attached to it, the auxiliary verb must be spaced.

  5. Full names attach, titles get a space

    A person's family name and given name are written attached with no space (홍길동, Hong Gildong), but any title or honorific following the name — 씨 ("Mx./Mr./Ms."), 님 (honorific suffix), 선생님 ("teacher"/polite "Mr./Ms."), 사장 ("boss/president") — gets a space: 홍길동 씨 (Hong Gildong ssi), 김철수 부장님 (Kim Cheolsu bujangnim).

  6. Spacing with large numbers

    Large-number units like 만 (ten thousand) and 억 (hundred million) are spaced from the number in principle when the number is spelled out fully in Hangul, but attached when paired with Arabic numerals as is conventional. Spelled out, "the year 2025" (이천이십오 년, icheonisip-o nyeon) is spaced; written with digits, 2025년 is attached.

Why spacing carries so much weight in Korean

Because Korean attaches grammatical particles directly onto words, deciding where a space belongs isn't just a stylistic habit the way it might feel in some other writing systems — it directly affects whether a sentence reads clearly. The official rules are set by Korea's national language authority, and getting comfortable with them is genuinely useful for anyone writing Korean formally, from school essays to business documents.

Where flexibility is actually allowed

Several of these rules officially permit an attached, no-space alternative, particularly for auxiliary verbs and numbers paired with digits, so seeing both forms in the wild doesn't necessarily mean one of them is wrong. Formal or academic writing, however, tends to default to the fully spaced, principle-following version to stay safely correct.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do native Korean speakers get this wrong too?

Yes — spacing is one of the areas of Korean writing that native speakers themselves most commonly get wrong, especially the dependent-noun rule (할 수 있다 vs. 할수있다) and the auxiliary-verb rule.

Is it ever fine to just write everything attached instead?

For a few specific rules — auxiliary verbs and large-number units paired with Arabic numerals — Korean's official orthography accepts the attached form as a valid alternative, but the spaced form is always the safer default, especially in formal writing.