Grammar
N께
Meaning
IntermediateN kke
Attached to a time expression, 께 means 'at around ~'. It is standard in incident and traffic reporting, which uses it even with a minute-precise figure — 오전 4시 25분께 — because the time on record is when the call came in, not necessarily when the event began. The hedge is doing real work there rather than softening the sentence for style.
Form
Time noun + 께, attached directly with no batchim distinction and no space (3시께, 오전 6~7시께, 이달 말께). It goes on clock times, dates and rough periods, but not on quantities — 'about ten people' is 열 명쯤 or 열 명가량, never 열 명께. The whole phrase then behaves like any other time expression in the sentence.
Examples
오후 3시께 비가 그쳤습니다.
The rain stopped at about three in the afternoon.
저녁 7시께 도착할 것 같습니다.
I think I will arrive around seven in the evening.
Common mistakes & nuance
Do not confuse this suffix with the honorific particle 께, which replaces 에게/한테 when the recipient is someone to be respected (부모님께 드렸다 'gave it to my parents'). Same spelling, unrelated jobs, and the noun in front tells you which one it is: a time, or a person. In everyday speech the approximate-time meaning is usually carried by 쯤 instead — 께 is the more formal, news-page choice.
Similar grammar
- -쯤
쯤 is the everyday equivalent and is interchangeable with 께 on a clock time (3시쯤 / 3시께), but 쯤 also attaches to amounts and extents (열 명쯤 'about ten people', 반쯤 'about halfway'), where 께 cannot go. 께 sounds more formal and turns up mainly in news writing.