Word Builder lessons are designed to help you understand how to expand your vocabulary by learning/understanding some common and basic building blocks of Korean words. The words and letters introduced through Word Builder lessons are not necessarily all Chinese characters, or 한자 [han-ja]. Though many of them are based on Chinese characters, the meanings can be different from modern-day Chinese. Your goal, through these lessons, is to understand how words are formed and remember the keywords in Korean to expand your Korean vocabulary from there.  You certainly don’t have to memorize the Hanja characters, but if you want to, feel free!

Today’s keyword is 원

These Chinese character for this is 院.
There are many other Chinese characters (or Hanja letters) that are used for 원, so keep in mind that not all the words that have 원 in them have related meanings.

The word 원 (院) is related to “house” and “institute”.

대 (big) + 학 (study) + 원 (house) = 대학원 大學院 [dae-ha-gwon] = graduate school

병 (sickness) + 원 (house) = 병원 病院 [byeong-won] = hospital

원 (house) + 장 (head) = 원장 院長 [won-jang] = head of an organization or an institute of which name ends with -원

학 (study) + 원 (house) = 학원 學院 [ha-gwon] = private school, institute

연수 (training, education) + 원 (house) = 연수원 硏修院 [yeon-su-won] = training institute

퇴 (to retreat, to go back) + 원 (house) = 퇴원 退院 [toe-won] = leaving the hospital

입 (to enter) + 원 (house) = 입원 入院 [i-bwon] = being hospitalized, hospitalization

법 (law) + 원 (house) = 법원 法院 [beo-bwon] = court of law

연구 (research) + 원 (house) = 연구원 硏究員 [yeon-gu-won] = research center

고 (lonely) + 아 (child) + 원 (house) = 고아원 孤兒院 [go-a-won] = orphanage