VocabularyJLPT N5 · core

病院

びょういん

hepburn byouin

hospital

Part of speech · noun

Pattern visualization

no decomposition available

Examples

病院に行きます。
I go to the hospital.
昨日病院で薬をもらいました。
I got medicine at the hospital yesterday.

Collocations

病院に行く病院で~ (at hospital)大学病院 (university hospital)~病院 (e.g. 中央病院)医者 (isha, doctor)

Mnemonic

びょういん — 病院, Sino-Japanese. Open the two kanji: 病 (sickness) + 院 (institution) = 'an institution for sickness = a hospital'. The Korean reading byeongwon lines up character for character. The kanji 院 is the universal institution suffix ── 大学院 daigakuin (graduate school), 美容院 biyouin (beauty salon), 寺院 jiin (temple). A famous trap: 病院 byouin (hospital) and 美容院 biyouin (beauty salon) sound nearly identical. The difference comes down to the first consonant — voiced byou- vs almost-voiceless bi-you-. Most learners mix these up at least once in their first year. Medical cluster ── 医者 isha (doctor), 薬 kusuri (medicine), 風邪 kaze (a cold), 注射 chuusha (injection). You meet these characters again in Mandarin Roots, as 病 and 院.

Quick check

How do 美容院 (beauty salon) and 病院 (hospital) differ in sound?