Korean Hanja
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What is Hanja?
The literal meaning of the word 'Hanja' is "Chinese character". Chinese characters (hanja) were used extensively in Korea as the writing system for several centuries until they were replaced by Hangul. Thus, the Korean language received a lot of influence from the Chinese language, and today about 60-75% of all Korean words are of Chinese origin. When Koreans talk about hanja, they mean actual Chinese characters (e.g. 金, 生, 星). However, in the context of learning the Korean language by foreigners, Hanja refers to the "root word" (e.g. 금, 생, 성).
Examples of root words in English:
- "Aud" (to hear) - audio, audition, audience
- "Bio" (life) - biology, biography
- "Hydro" (water) - hydrant, hydrology
- "Tele" (far) - telephone, television, telegram, telepathy
- "Therm" (heat) - thermal, thermometer, thermodynamics
Being familiar with root words can be beneficial for studying any language. It can particularly enhance your vocabulary skills.
There are lots of Hanja used in the Korean language (at least 2000). Here I will list out the most common ones. You can also do your own research using Naver dictionary.
학 [學] studies
성 [星] star
금 [金] money
식 [食] food
력 [力] power
생 [生] life
동 [動] move
- 인 [人] person
- 중 [中] center
- 상 [上] up
- 하 [下] down
- 재 [在] at
- 출 [出] out
- 목 [目] eye
- 수 [水] water
- 풍 [風] wind, air
- 공 [公] public
- 공 [空] empty
- 국 [國] country
- 인구, 한국인, 인재 (population, Korean person, talented people)
- 중국, 중심, 집중 (China, center, concentrate)
- 상승 (increase)
- 지하철 (subway)
- 재학 (being enrolled)
- 출근 (go to work)
- 목격자 (witness)
- 수영장, 수박, 홍수 (swimming pool, watermelon, flood)
- 태풍, 풍선, 선풍기 (typhoon, balloon, electric fan)
- 공원, 공공기관 (park, public institution)
- 항공, 공기 (aviation, air)
- 국적, 국가, 한국 (nationality, country/national anthem, Korea)
Quick reference (click to open)
Vowels: a, e, i, o, u
Consonants: b, c, d, f, g, h, j
Syllable: Bra-zil (2 syllables), Ar-gen-ti-na (4), In-di-a (3), Viet-nam (2), thin-king (2), beau-ti-ful (3), good (1)
Batchim: is a final consonant in a syllable. → Bra-zil (batchim: 'l'), Ar-gen-ti-na (batchims: 'r' and 'n'), In-di-a ('n'), Viet-nam ('t', 'm')
Romanization: is a conversion of text (not pronunciation ! ) from different writing system (Korean, Arabic, Russian, etc.) to the Roman (Latin) alphabet.
IPA: is an alphabetic system of phonetic (pronunciation) notation.
Noun: road, user, sister, table, sky
Pronoun: I, my, we, you, they, her
Verb: to go, to study, to think, to feel
Adjective: cold, kind, hungry, curious, expensive
Adverb: quickly, nicely, never, exactly, urgently
Preposition: from, to, on, in, with, till
Conjuction: and, because, if, but, while
Declarative sentence: I learn Korean.
Interrogative sentence: Do you learn Korean?
Imperative sentence: You must learn Korean!
Exclamative sentence: Wow, you learn Korean!
Verb / Adj. stem in Korean: part of a verb or adj. which is left after removing the last syllable -다 ( e.g. 가다 → 가, 예쁘다 → 예쁘, 듣다 → 듣 ).