The 10 Most Common Hanja for Korean Learners: Part 1

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Hanja refers to the Chinese characters that have been used in Korean for centuries. Long ago, before paper or ink were common, people carved very simple symbols onto turtle shells or animal bones for rituals and fortune telling. This earliest form of writing is called oracle bone script(갑골문자). Many early hanja began as drawings of real things(상형문자), and over time those pictures slowly changed into the more abstract shapes we see today. 

Each hanja character usually represents one word or idea—like “person,” “tree,” or “water.” Many hanja characters are made of smaller parts, called radicals(부수). These radicals act like little hints that help us guess the meaning of the character. Because of that, if you know some hanja characters, your Korean vocabulary will improve. 

Hanja can also be pictographs, which means they started as simple drawings of things. For example, 山 (메 산) looks like a mountain! Some hanja are compound characters, made by combining two or more radicals to form a new sound and meaning.

When you read Hanja, you usually say the meaning first and then the sound, like 메 산 "mouuntain, san." The meaning is usually expressed in pure Korean.  So here, 메 means "mountain" in pure Korean, although people use the word 산 more often in everyday speech. On the other hand, for the word "fire," there are two words: 불 (pure Korean) & 화 (火, hanja). In daily life, 불 is used more often. 

Why do you need to learn Hanja? Learning hanja is really useful because it helps you:1. Understand Korean words better. 2. Read signs, newspapers, or old texts more easily. 3. Recognize connections between words that share the same radical.

Here are 10 of the most common and basic Hanja to get you started:

  • 山 (메 산): Looks like a mountain and means "mountain."

  • 川 (내 천): Three lines representing a flowing stream, meaning "river" or "stream."

  • 木 (나무 목): A tree with branches and roots, meaning "tree" or "wood."

  • 水 (물 수): Represents a flowing stream with drops of water, meaning "water."

  • 火 (불 화): Looks like flames rising, meaning "fire."

  • 日 (날 일): A square with a line inside, originally a drawing of the sun, meaning "sun" or "day."

  • 月 (달 월): A crescent moon shape, meaning "moon" or "month."

  • 人 (사람 인): This means "person" or "human."

  • 大 (큰 대): A person stretching out their arms, meaning "big" or "great."

  • 小 (작을 소): This is made of three falling dots representing something small. It means "small."

Learning Hanja is a great way to deepen your understanding of the Korean language and vocabulary. Ready to give it a try?

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