Chinese vs Korean
Is Chinese similar to Korean? How close are they?
Chinese and Korean are unrelated, but Korean absorbed a large Sino-Korean vocabulary that once was written in Chinese characters (Hanja). Grammar and sound systems differ sharply: Chinese is tonal and analytic, Korean is non-tonal and agglutinative.
The short answer
Unrelated in grammar and sound: Chinese is tonal with subject-verb-object order, Korean is toneless, verb-final and agglutinative. The bridge is vocabulary: a large share of Korean words are Sino-Korean, so 學生 (学生) xuéshēng corresponds to 학생 haksaeng.
The verdict
Sino-Korean words echo Chinese (電話 diànhuà, 전화 jeonhwa; 學生 xuésheng, 학생 haksaeng). Grammar, word order and sounds are unrelated.
Closeness score
6 / 30
Mutually intelligible?
no
Shared vocabulary
Roughly 60% of Korean dictionary vocabulary is Sino-Korean, though less in everyday speech
Which first?
Chinese first unlocks Sino-Korean vocabulary.
Kungfucius says: Korean borrowed the vocabulary and returned the characters.
Side by side
diànhuà전화 (電話)
jeonhwaSino-Korean reading of the same compound.
xuésheng학생 (學生)
haksaengKorean keeps the final -k that Mandarin lost (學 hak vs xué).