Lesson 13
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!
In this lesson, we are looking at the word 과. When 과 is written in Hanja as “過”, it means “to surpass”, “to go over”, “to pass” or “too much”.
과 (to surpass, too much) + 식 (eat) = 과식過食 = eating too much, overeating
과 (to surpass, too much) + 음 (drink) = 과음過飮 = drinking too much, excessive drinking
과 (to surpass, too much) + 속 (to be fast) = 과속過速 = speeding
통 (to go through) + 과 (to pass) = 통과通過 = pass, passing through, passing (a test)
간 (to see) + 과 (to pass) = 간과看過 = failure to notice, passing over
과 (too much) + 민 (agile, quick) = 과민過敏= being hypersensitive
과 (too much) + 로 (labor) = 과로過勞= working too much, too much labor
과 (to pass) + 거 (to go) = 과거過去= the past
과 (to surpass, too much) + 대 (to be big) = 과대過大 = too big, over sized
과 (to pass) + 정 (way, limit) = 과정過程 = process
과 (to surpass, too much) + 소비 (consumption) = 과소비過消費 = overspending, excessive consumption
과 (too much) + 신 (to believe) = 과신過信 = overconfidence