Questions tagged [hanja]
Questions pertaining to Hanja: the Korean name for Chinese characters. The Korean language has borrowed Chinese characters that have been incorporated into the Korean language.
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How to convert chinese name into korean name?
I've done a lot of research due converting my chinese name to hangul, but I can't find out how, since my characters rarely used. How do I translate my chinese name: 汪凌飞 (Wang Ling Fei) to hangul ...
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Can 오합지졸 describe the Halloween Crowd in Itaewon, South Korea?
오합지졸
- 까마귀 烏, 합합 合, 같지 之, 군사 卒
- 아무 규율도 통일도 없이 몰려다니는 무리
- A crowd that rushes around without any discipline or unity
Can the crowd from the 2022 Halloween tragedy in Itaewon be said to be an oh-...
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If you learn 한국어, do you need to learn 한자?
I don't know should I learn korean 한자 or not, because someone says there are more than half vocabulary from Chinese.
I already master Chinese, but Chinese 한자 and korean 한자 is different in terms of ...
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Silver Mark Translation Help
I have several silver cups that I recently purchased. The seller said they were brought back to the US during the Korean war, most likely in the mid 20th century. I was told that the mark is most ...
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How does "주간" translate to "daytime?"
I thought 주간 means "week" or "weekly" (literally "span of one week"), but if you add an "에" or even just "야간" for context, it becomes "daytime.&...
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How can I say someone is precious person in Korean?
Is it correct if I call someone 소중인 ? Does that make any sense in Korean?
소중 - precious
인 - person
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Does Korean render Japanese names according to how they are read in Hanja?
I observed once how the Japanese name “咲良” was rendered into Hangul as “사쿠라,” instead of its equivalent pronunciation in Hanja (which according to Google Translate is something like “소량”). Is this ...
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Why was 不 (etymon of 아) pronounced *An in Old Korean?
The IPA for 不 in 2021 Mandarin is pʷu4, and in 2021 Cantonese is /pɐt5. These don't sound like *An.
From what did An phonologically change?
Can you please expound the steps of 不's phonological ...
user3738
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불안(不安) 부(不), 안(安) why is this liul inserted?
I know hangul was originally written as Kanji.
불안 should be written as 부안, because 부 is "不", 안 is "安".
Why is 부안 written as 불안?
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What books or reliable websites list commonly used Sino-Korean vocabulary in 2021?
My boss is curious how much Modern Korean he can recognize from his fluency in Cantonese and Mandarin. He plans to start by learning solely Hanja, obviously to take advantage of his fluent Cantonese ...
user3738
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Why are 댜 뱌 챠 탸 퍄 햐 됴 툐 not used?
I am learning Hangeul and found this image on the Internet (I cannot locate the original source):
It seems like some of the syllable blocks are greyed out, which I think means it's not used. There's ...
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Unusual hangeul syllables in 1920's handwritten Korean?
(This is a question about handwritten Korean, I don't have enough reputation to create a new tag for handwriting.)
My Korean grandfather's notebook contains a chronology of the places he went while ...
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Why 방금(方今) means just now in Korean while "方今" means nowadays in Chinese?
방금 has its hanja "方今", which doesn't means "just now" but nowadays in neither ancient Chinese nor modern Chinese.
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What is written in that big bracket?
I was looking up the Korean word for “together”, when I came across its entry in the pure Korean dictionary on my iPhone. There’s this big bracket which seems to provide the etymology of the word.
I ...
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what do 形 and 便 mean and how can they combine to make the meaning “situation”?
The Chinese word of 형편 (situation) in Korean is 形便. Can anyone explain what 形 and 便 mean and how can they combine to make the meaning "situation"?
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Why do some hanja characters have multiple hangul?
I found that some hanja words have multiple equivalent hangul. For example,
력 and 역량 (力 and 力量)
(I could not come up with other words but there were more such words but once I find I will add more)
...
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Synonymous hanjas list (most frequent ones)
We know that there are at least 2500 hanjas that are used in modern Korean.
I want to know synonymous hanjas like 불 and 무 (무료 and 불합격). These two hanjas are kind of negation prefixes.
There might be ...
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Korean words whose pronunciation differs unpredictably from the spelling
There are several Korean words which have a pronunciation that differs from the spelling in an unpredictable way, like 내과 (actually pronounced like 내꽈) and 여권 (actually pronounced 여꿘).1 As far as I ...
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What is the pure Korean version of 동생?
I wonder why some words have or do not have pure Korean version. One explanation I found is that everyday basic usage words have Korean version because they originated long time ago. The more modern a ...
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What is 훈음 in a layman's words?
In learning Korean hanja, I come accross to the word 훈음.
So what does it mean in a layman's word?
An example from wikitionary:
'國'의 음은 '국'이며 훈은 '나라'이다
Or an excerpt from Naver dict for 훈:
...
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Any good online alternative for "Handbook of Korean Vocabulary"
I am referring to this book titled "Handbook of Korean Vocabulary: A Resource for Word Recognition and Comprehension":
https://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Korean-Vocabulary-Recognition-Comprehension/dp/...
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The true meaning of Korean workplace titles
I was referring to words such as 사원, 주임, 대리, 과장, 차장, 부장, 실장, 수석부장, 이사, 상무, 전무, 사장, 회장
So it was always bothering me what the true meaning of these workplace titles mean and what's their etymology.
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Does 단비 (sweet rain) have Hanja?
Hanja (Korean Hanzi) Dic gives some possible Hanja for 단비:
單婢 團匪 單比 斷碑 斷臂 短臂
None of these seem to match the meaning "sweet rain."
Does 단비 (sweet rain) have Hanja?
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Do all Sino-Korean words have exactly one reading?
In Mandarin, if you see "風車", you know it says "fēngchē". But in Japanese, if you see the same two characters, you don't know if it's "kazaguruma" or "fūsha". Roughly, those Japanese words are two ...
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When should Native Numbers be used? [duplicate]
When you are numbering things, like pages, which set of Korean numbers would one use? Also, when counting objects, which are you supposed to use? I have seen people specify months, phone numbers, ...
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What do the characters I've found on this old gun mean?
On an antique shotgun I was told had Korean origin I found the following (what I presume are Hanja?) characters. Four out of five I believe I have correctly identified. One character I could not find ...
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What is the hangeul for the personal name 金知桓?
What is the hangeul for the personal name 金知桓?
I understand that the family name is 김 but what is the given name?
I have searched all the dictionaries I have and google doesn't give me anything.
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Is this underlining and quoting a standard way of marking names and nicknames in text?
In an online version of the Bible, 요한 is underlined in
그 이름은 요한이었다. (His name is John.)
Is that a common thing? Is it because it is a name, or because it is a foreign word? One of the answers ...
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What's the etymology of 점심 (點心) meaning 'lunch'?
The characters for 점심 (點心) mean something like:
點 - 'point' or 'dot'心 - 'heart'
Those characters have other meanings too, but I can't see from any of them how the characters come to make a word that ...
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Does the character 韓(한) refer both to Korea, and to a geographically distinct Chinese 'Han'?
According to Wikipedia, the character 韓(한) used in 한국 and 대한민국 can also refer to:
(historical) Han, an ancient Chinese county, viscounty, and kingdom of the Zhou Dynasty and the Qin–Han interregnum....
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Is the use of Hanja in Korean associated with Traditional (rather than simplified) Chinese characters?
Is the use of Hanja in Korean associated with Traditional (rather than simplified) Chinese characters? Or, in written Korean, would it seem normal to render Sino-Korean words using simplified Chinese ...
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Meaning of 梛 (나무 이름 나)
梛 (나) has the meaning of "나무 이름" in the dictionary, but does this mean the name of some particular tree or just the "나" in 나무? If the former, which tree name? If the latter, it seems strange to me ...
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Why are Hanja described with -ㄹ/을?
When describing the meaning of Hanja, adjectives and verbs use the -ㄹ/을 ending. For example:
美: 아름다울 미
用: 쓸 용
I've always just kind of accepted this, but recently was thinking why is the -ㄹ/을 ending ...
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Origin of character 威 (위)
chineseetymology.org briefly states that this is "From woman 女 and weapon 戌. Meaning to dominate."
Arch Chinese states that this is an ideograph composed of 女(Woman) and 威(kill) - though I think the ...
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Pronunciation of 不: 불 vs 부
不 can be pronounced either 불 or 부 depending on the word (examples). Is there a rule or pattern when to which one or is it just a matter of memorizing word by word?
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Does Korean have something like Japanese Ateji (当て字)?
That is: are there Korean words in which Hanja is used just to represent sounds regardless of the meaning of the characters employed?
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Why do some Korean given names use the letter 漢?
I have noticed that some South Korean/North Korean given names use the letter 漢 (e.g. 漢宰, 漢率).
This seemed a bit odd to me, since 漢 is usually strongly linked to the Han dynasty of China.
Why do these ...
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Country 한자 characters used in headlines
I just ran across the 한자 伊(저 이) used in a headline to mean "Italy". It's the first time I'd seen it, so I was wondering if there are other characters actively used to represent countries in headlines ...
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기계 (gigye) ==> 機械, 器械, 奇計 (what else?)
en.wiktionary.org is great for Hangul Super- Newbie learners.
For example,
en.wiktionary.org 기계
gives me 3 Kanji (Hanja) meanings/readings for 기계 (gigye) ==> 機械, 器械, 奇計
( btw, in Jp ( Japanese ),...
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Is there any Korean word in use that uses 藍 / '남' to mean 바구니 / basket?
When looking at the hanja for '남' on my Windows IME I was surprised to see '바구니 남' as the third entry. I couldn't find a Korean word that uses 藍 / '남' to mean 바구니 / basket. Are there any examples of ...
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When using the Korean IME In Windows 10, how do I type hanja (한자) characters?
Sometimes when I'm using the Korean IME in Windows 10, I somehow accidentally trigger a menu to type hanja - but when I want to type hanja, I can't think how I did it! How do I trigger the hanja ...
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Why do product labels often have emphasized 한자?
헛개차 uses 茶 instead of 차 for 'tea', and there is also an exaggerated 男 (남) meaning man:
백세주 has a stylised 百 meaning 100:
I've heard that 한자 are often used to disambiguate 한글 representing Chinese ...
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Change in pronunciation from 한자 to 한자어
I've been recently studying 한자어 and have seen that many times the pronunciation of the Chinese word is different (sometimes very) than the equivalent Korean word.
I was wondering if this is due to ...
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Why is 金 differentially written as 김 and 금?
Everyone knows the surname 김, which is 金 in hanja. However, 金 is written as 금 everywhere except the surname, e.g. 금요일 Friday, 금성 Venus, 백금 platinum, 합금 alloy, 기금 fund. Why is the surname 김 written ...
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Dropping of initial ㄹ and ㄴ before /j/ and /i/ in hanja
In many hanja words, initial 리을 and 니은 are dropped before a "y" /j/ or "i" /i/ sound, which correspond to the vowels ㅣ ㅕ ㅑ ㅖ ㅠ ㅛ. This often happens if the hanja constitutes the first syllable of a ...
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Are all words from Chinese characters (한자어) nouns?
It seems to me like all the common Chinese character-based words in Korean I've encountered are, in themselves, nouns (though many of them can be used with 하다 to create verbs).
Even 'sayings' like ...
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Is hanja opposed in North Korea?
I've heard here and there that hanja was opposed in North Korea for some ideological reason or another, but the English language Wikipedia article on hanja seems to present a more nuanced situation, ...
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Are ordinary native Korean speakers capable of understanding individual Japanese kanji words in written form?
While learning Japanese, I've learnt some individual Chinese characters, and some Japanese words made out of Chinese characters.
Are ordinary native Korean speakers, as opposed to someone who has ...
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When should I use Hanja instead of Hangul?
How can I know when to use Hanja over Hangul, or vice-versa?
Answers giving a bit of history/thorough explanation would be greatly appreciated.
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Is there any word that varies in length when written in hanja or hangul?
I've learned that due to Korean syllable structure, every hanja is exactly one hangul block long. Is there any Sino-Korean word (한자어) that deviates from this rule (by colloquial sound change etc.) ...
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