Love going to the dentist? Hate going to the dentist? Either way, you will need to know some important words if you need to find a dentist or dental supplies to keep your teeth looking nice and healthy.
One thing you may notice about several words in the infographic is that many of them have the word ‘치’ in them. This is based on the Hanja ‘齒’ and it means ‘tooth’.
If you take the word for toothpaste, you get 치 (tooth in Hanja) + 약 (medicine) which would literally translate to ‘tooth medicine’.
If you take the word for floss, you get 치 (tooth in Hanja) + 실 (thread) which would literally translate to tooth thread.
Once you get more advanced in Korean, learning Hanja can actually be beneficial (but not necessary) to learning new words.
List of words in this infographic:
치과 의사 (chi-gwa ui-sa) = dentist
치과 (chi-gwa) = dentist’s office
치아 (chi-a) = tooth/teeth (formal)
이 (i) = tooth/teeth (informal)
충치 (chung-chi) = cavity
칫솔 (chi-sol) = toothbrush
치약 (chi-yak) = toothpaste
치실 (chi-sil) = floss
사랑니 (sa-rang-ni) = wisdom teeth