Korean Hanja with Hanja, Hangul, and Pronunciation Guide28

The Korean language has a unique writing system that combines three different elements: Hangul, which is the native Korean alphabet; Hanja, which are Chinese characters; and the pronunciations of these characters in Korean.

Hanja were first introduced to Korea from China during the Three Kingdoms period (57 BC - 668 AD). Initially, Hanja were used as the primary writing system for Korean, but over time, Hangul became more widely used. Today, Hanja is still used in Korean, but its use is limited to certain contexts, such as in formal writing, in technical terms, and in proper names.

There are approximately 18,000 Hanja characters in the Korean language. However, only a small number of these characters are commonly used. The most common Hanja characters are those that are used in everyday vocabulary, such as those that represent numbers, days of the week, months of the year, and common words like "person" and "thing".

Hanja characters are not pronounced the same in Korean as they are in Chinese. In Korean, Hanja characters are pronounced according to the Korean pronunciation rules. This means that the same Hanja character can have different pronunciations in Korean, depending on the context in which it is used.

To help you learn how to read and pronounce Hanja, we have created a table that lists the most common Hanja characters, along with their Hangul pronunciations and their English translations.| Hanja | Hangul | Pronunciation | English Translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 一 | 일 | il | one |
| 二 | 이 | i | two |
| 三 | 삼 | sam | three |
| 四 | 사 | sa | four |
| 五 | 오 | o | five |
| 六 | 육 | yuk | six |
| 七 | 칠 | chil | seven |
| 八 | 팔 | pal | eight |
| 九 | 구 | gu | nine |
| 十 | 십 | ship | ten |
| 人 | 인 | in | person |
| 事 | 사 | sa | thing |
| 男 | 남 | nam | man |
| 女 | 여 | yeo | woman |
| 子 | 자 | ja | child |
| 父 | 부 | bu | father |
| 母 | 모 | mo | mother |
| 日 | 일 | il | day |
| 月 | 월 | wol | month |
| 年 | 년 | nyeon | year |
| 時 | 시 | shi | time |
| 分 | 분 | bun | minute |
| 秒 | 초 | cho | second |