Locale Ko Kr

Reference data for the Korean (Korea) locale — endonym 한국어 (대한민국), written in the Korean script, left-to-right (LTR).

Identifiers

• BCP 47 tag: ko-KR
• ISO 639-1: ko
• ISO 639-3: kor
• Script: Kore (Korean)
• Region: KR (Korea)
• Text direction: ltr — left-to-right (LTR)

Speakers (approximate)

• L1 (native): 51,000,000
• L2 (additional): 1,000,000
• L1+L2 (total): 52,000,000

Base locale

This is a regional variant of Locale Ko 001 (Korean), the base/macro locale for this language.

Pluralization

CLDR plural categories for this locale: other (1 form).

• other — everything else (e.g. 0~15, 100, 1000, 10000, …)

See Unicode Messageformat for writing plural messages using these categories.

Translating into this locale

Apply Locale Ko 001 with South Korean conventions. The standard language (표준어) of South Korea is based on Seoul speech; North Korean standard (문화어) differs in vocabulary, spelling, and spacing.

• Formats: year-month-day 2026년 10월 17일 (or 2026. 10. 17.), 24-hour clock, currency 원 (₩), thousands comma.
• Names and titles: family name first (김민수), with 님 or 씨 in correspondence; job titles follow the name.
• Loanwords: English loanwords are common in tech and marketing (앱, 로그인); use the National Institute's spelling of loanwords and check for official replacement terms.
• Tone: warm and polite; apology and thanks are frequent in customer service.
• Hangul input: use precomposed Hangul syllables (NFC) in text.

Common pitfalls

• Using Pyongyang-standard vocabulary or spacing.
• Using English honorific order for names.
• The general pitfalls in Locale Ko 001 also apply.

Learn more

• Locale for BCP 47 identifiers, locale-sensitive formatting, pluralization, and text-direction concepts that apply across all locales.
• Unicode Messageformat for writing plural/selection messages correctly for this locale's grammar.
• National Institute of Korean Language, 국립국어원 (https://www.korean.go.kr)