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I'm learning Korean and noticed that Korean contains a lot of phrases with the Tilde "~" . For example the sentence:
여행지의 기본 정보를 알아본 후 여행 상품을 2~3개 정도 고릅니다.
I see this Tidle "~" is sometimes read as 에서, sometimes as 부터, so what is the principle of reading it?. Should I read it as 에서 or 부터? For example: "2~3개" can be read as: "두에서 세개" or "두부터 세개"? Thank you!
The tilde, in Korean, has the same usage with the en dash “–”. It represents a range or span of numbers or time.
Use the numeric determiners (“관형사”) “두” (“two …”) and “세” (“three …”) with the same unit “개” and link them together with “에서” (“from …”). Though you could also use “부터” (“from …”) in some cases, this is not the case; “에서” is always a safe bet.
Or drop the unit and replace it with the corresponding numeric words “둘” (“two”) and “셋” (“three”).
This is not grammatical, because a numeric determiner (“관형사”) (“두” in this sentence) has to modify a noun (the unit noun “개” in this sentence).
But actually, “두에서 세 개” doesn’t sound completely off to me. The specific phrase “두에서 세 개” is an exception, but you should avoid this kind of construction anyway.
You can also use compound numeric determiners. Those are:
And Sino–Korean numbers less than 20 are rarely used. Better to just prefer native words for numbers less than 20.
"두" or "세" is a 관형사, which means you can never add a suffix after that. So, "두에서 세 개" is plainly incorrect.
If you're reading it aloud, "두세 개" is the best expression. Because the Arabian numerals (like "2" or "3") are frequently read as Chinese numbers (일, 이, 삼, ...) you will be also understood if you say "이삼 개" - however, strictly speaking, I think it's considered incorrect. (If you write "이삼 개" in Hangul then I think most people will consider it incorrect.)
On the other hand, if the range is something like "2~5개", then you can't say "둘다섯/이오 개" because there's no such word. I'd personally read it as "이에서 오 개".
2~3개: 둘에서 세 개, 두세 개 sounds okay.
1~30번: 일 번에서 삼십 번까지, 일 번부터 삼십 번까지 sounds okay. '까지' might be omitted.
For the former case, you choose either one of multiple options(2개, 3개). For the latter case, you (probably) don't. I have to take a look at the whole sentence to explain more.
