Sino-Korean or Korean words with a hanja basis make up a lot of Korean words! Estimates guess it can range from 50-70% of Korean vocabulary. Here I help teach you Korean words using Sino-Korean without needing to know or study hanja!
식 is a reoccuring piece in many Korean food words and that’s because it has sino-Korean and hanja origins. 식 comes from 食 which means meal and food. So let’s get into some of the words that it comes up in!
Let’s get into a quick & easy Sino-Korean lesson! 年 (년) is the Chinese and Sino-Korean character used to say year in Korean. It is used for year vocab and also vocab related to age and generations.
If you’ve learned some words associated with school or education like 학교 you might have noticed the reoccurring 교 theme, that’s because a lot of school and educational words use Sino-Korean!
Let’s get into some Sino-Korean with the 인 from 인간! 인간 is derived from the Chinese character 人 which means person. This is one if the simplest characters with minimal strokes and it looks like a stick mans legs so it’s easy to remember!
Sino-Korean basically means that a specific words source is originally Chinese. About 60% of Korean has Chinese origins as a basis. Words like 인간 (person/human) use the Chinese character (or hanja in Korean) 人 make the 인 in 인간.
I remember really having an issue with sino vs native korean numbers and this is a recourse I found that can really help you out if you find yourself in the same position! You can play through 1-100 on both the sino and native korean numbers games for a nice review and test on your skills.