Japanese Language vs. Korean Language

I've noticed quiet a few similarities between the Japanese and Korean languages. One major similarity being that their grammar structures are basically the same. They both have their verbs at the end, whereas in English the verb is seen somewhere in the middle.

For example:

"(It is) water."
  • Japanese: 水です。(mizu desu.)
  • Korean: 물이에요. (mul i-ye-yo.)
In both cases you have the subject first, mizu/mul, and the verb last, desu/iyeyo. You could potentially create this sentence in that same structure in English too, but it's somewhat strange to phrase it that way, "Water, it is."


Another similarity which I'm still confused about is a lot of the vocabulary. I know that Japanese and Korean were influenced by Chinese, but whenever I look up the Chinese word, it never resembles how it is said in neither Japanese nor Korean. So what gives?

For example:

"Bag"
  • Japanese: 鞄 (kaban)
  • Korean: 가방 (gabang)
  • Chinese: 袋 (dài)
"Baseball"
  • Japanese: 野球 (yakyū)
  • Korean: 야구 (yagu)
  • Chinese: 棒球 (bàngqiú)

However, there are still some similarities between Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, like the usage of the same characters and some similar sounding words (but in current day Korea, they rarely use Chinese characters anymore). On the otherhand, they can be completely different and seem totally random.

For example:

"Tofu"
  • Chinese: 豆腐 (dòufu)
  • Korean: 豆腐 (dubu)
  • Japanese: 豆腐 (tōfu)
"Apple"
  • Chinese: 苹果 (píngguǒ)
  • Japanese: 苹果 (ryugou/ringo)
  • Korean: 사과 (sagwa)
"Dog"
  • Chinese: 狗 (gǒu)
  • Korean: 개 (gae)
  • Japanese: 犬 (inu)

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