Questions tagged [kanji]
漢字. Chinese characters as used in Japanese writing as opposed to the two kana syllabaries and rōmaji (Latin letters).
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Rosetta Stone's usage of kana for words instead of kanji
As I use Rosetta Stone to learn Japanese, I only use the Kanji mode (except when I forget the reading for a kanji and then flip it briefly to furigana mode). However, I've found that for some reason ...
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相 used in names
When I'm introduced to a new place I often like to figure out the literal meaning of the characters as I find it can be a useful general vocabulary building exercise, particularly for things such as ...
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What's the reading of 二人 in this sentence?
The sentence is
二人間がしっくり行かない
i'm confused when to use ににん and when to use ふたり
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Can the onyomi be longer than 2 morae?
I started learning japanese recently, and I looked back at the kanji I've learned, and I simply can't think of any kanji with an onyomi longer than 2 morae.
Is there really no kanji with an onyomi ...
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What is this strange kanji that looks a bit like 侍, but isn't?
Staying at a ryokan recently, I received some postcards with the following little poem:
What are the characters that I have highlighted in red? They look a bit like [侍]{さむらい}, but based on the ...
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Etymological connection between 門 and 円?
I'm curious if there's any historical link between the kanji for "gate", 門{かど}, and the kanji for "circle" or "yen", 円{えん}. If 門 is gate, 円 looks like a closed gate. Am I being whimsical and seeing ...
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What's the best utility for identifying kanji? [closed]
I often run into kanji that I don't recognize and need some way to translate them into kana, so that I'm able to look up the meaning.
What's the most useful utility (in any form, web-based, ...
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How do you know what word to write in its kanji correspondence?
My study book writes some words like あまり and おおぜい in pure hiragana and I can't figure out whether it is common to write these words in hiragana as the books says, or I'd better write them in their ...
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What is the correct way to read chapter numbers? (e.g.: 第1話)
I see this form often in manga book indexes. My dictonary gives me ダイ and テイ as possible readings for the first kanji, and I'm also not sure if the number should be read as a counter (like 一つ is read ...
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Multiple common kanji for a word: which to use?
I have been using jisho.org and aedict (android) to look at the definition, kanji and reading of words. Sometimes though, they list words that have multiple kanji in use and they are all indicated as "...
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Difference between 運命 and 命運
To my knowledge, 運命{うんめい} is the more common of the two terms, meaning fate / destiny. 命運{めいうん} is clearly the same 漢字 reversed, and translations give the same meaning of fate / destiny.
I was ...
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不 and 非 and 無 and 未 usage difference/rule
Is there any rules that govern when to use 不 and 非 and 無 and 未 in regards to the meaning of "not" or "un-"
for instance 非表示, 不満
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Is there a difference with 胃 and おなか?
I checked around and it says here about the usage of 胃, however, I didn't see おなか there.
What is the difference in おなか and 胃, in pronunciation and usage?
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Is there a kanji for "hacker"?
As I understand it, most foreign words in Japanese are written in Katakana. However, I am curious as to whether in contemporary written Japanese, hacker is written as a literal adaptation of the ...
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Why is "学生" made "plural" in this newspaper article?
The ending of the first line of the first paragraph in the newspaper article titled さくら市の歩み一冊に reads
... さくら市の記念誌を文星芸大（宇都宮市）のデザイン専攻の学生たちが制作した。
My understanding is that that means:
The students who ...
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Seeing the invisible の in old names and words
In many place and people names, there is an "invisible の", e.g., 三宮 is read さんのみや and 中大兄皇子 is なかのおおえのおうじ. This can also happen in words: 班田収授法 is read はんでんしゅうじゅのほう, which I am less comfortable with ...
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森 vs 林 for forest
According to A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters, 森 (38) is woods and 林 (75) is forest.
But some material I've found online related to Japan seems to indicate 森 is the more correct Japanese ...
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木 vs 樹 for trees
It seems that one difference between the usage of 木 and 樹 is that while both mean tree, the former is also used to mean wood. My question is, is there a further distinction for living trees?
I'm ...
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Can anyone help translate this Kanji? [closed]
Can someone please help me translate this kanji? I saw it on a tattoo and would like to know what it means. Thank you so very much in advance!
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Difference between 類 and 類
What is the difference between 類 (unicode: 985e) and 類 (unicode: f9d0)?
They look virtually identical (at least as rendered by my computer).
Rikaichan says that the former has 18 strokes and the ...
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How many Jōyō Kanji are identical to simplified Hanzi?
How many Jōyō Kanji are identical to simplified Hanzi?
If we need to define a restriction for the simplified Hanzi, I would suggest
List of Frequently Used Characters in Modern Chinese.
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What does 兼 mean when it appears next to a person's name in an organizational chart?
The 兼 character appears next to some people's names in the organizational chart of the company I work at, as shown below.
田中 太郎 （兼）
What meaning does the 兼 character signify in this context?
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Radicals : How to remember suffix-es, readings and positions?
There are 214 radicals, and their positions can be either Hen, Tsukuri, Ashi/ Ashi Variant, Kanmuri, Nyō, Tare or Kamae/ Kamae Variant. One example 衝(oposition), so this kanji is made of the kanji 行(...
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Radicals: がしら (gashira) endings?
Does somebody know for what the [がしら]{gashira} ending stands in radicals like:
eight (はちがしら{hachigashira})
winter (ふゆがしら{fuyugashira}), or
short thread (いとがしら{itogashira})?
Is it part of あし{ashi} (...
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Looking for a kanji/symbol used for counting noodles
Just to add some context: I was with a Japanese friend at a うどん and そば restaurant in 浅草 where they had a small sign by the counter to buy their fresh noodles. However, the size of the portion was not ...
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What are kanjimaniacs? [closed]
I've seen that there are people obsessed with kanji, and they are seen as kanji lovers, could you explain me why? and give me some examples of it? where is better to use hiragana or katakana instead ...
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The difference between 幸 and 運 as "luck" or "fortune"
I've come across these two kanji in a few cases for "good/bad fortune" and even in combination with eachother. I'd really like to understand if there's a subtle difference that I'm missing so that I ...
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Is there a name for kanji compounds consisting of kanji with the same radical and for compounds with repeated kanji?
There are lots of 二字熟語, say, where both characters have the same radical, e.g., 明日, 機械, and 往復. I find these interesting as often the common radical is strongly associated with the meaning of the ...
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When we should use kanji?
I just confuse about kanji. I just learn a bit of kanji. But I want to know when exactly we use it? is there a rule about that?
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Nanori reading needed for JLPT?
I understand that the On- and Kun- readings are important to know and understand. However, what about the Nanori readings? Are they worth studying if I am aiming to just take the JLPT tests?
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How is 家 in [name]家 pronounced?
How would [name]家, for example 田中家, be pronounced when referring to somebody's home in an informal or casual way? I think I've heard it pronounced ち but it could have been うち too. Perhaps both are ...
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due to kanji variants, are 器械、海外、劍道 even words?
I am interested in kanji variants. Please consider these three variant pairs:
(normal kanji) 剣 ---> (variant) 劍
(normal kanji) 海 ---> (variant) 海
(normal kanji) 器 ---> (variant) 器
Are「劍道」、「海外」、「...
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What part of the kunyomi must be learned?
I've just started learning kanji but I don't understand what part of kunyomis I should memorize.
This is the first kanji in kanjidamage.com:
一
Its kunyomi is this:
ひと*つ
According to howto page of ...
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Did ある and いる once have kanji?
I'm surprised I haven't been able to turn up anything, but I'm sure you'll notify me if there's a dupe I missed.
Did the verbs ある and いる ever have kanji? I recognise that it won't be in use today.
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Categorizing kanji variants - is there a "proper" form?
Here are kanji variants:
海 (as an image: )
海
In case it does not display correctly for you, the first kanji is unicode U+FA45.
Is 海 considered a variant of the much more common 海? Or, are 海 and 海 ...
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ムダ足だった == useless leg?
When I look up the phrase 無駄足だった, I see it translated as "It was a Wild goose chase." I found this bizarre, since it seems like it would mean "It was a useless foot/leg." is this some sort of figure ...
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What is this kanji?眞+頁
So I came across a kanji I can't seem to find in any online dictionary.
It's basically the following two characters stuck together 眞頁 (I'm reading a physical book, so can't copy paste it), and is ...
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Stroke order explanation for 凸 and 凹
The correct stroke order of 凹 is apparently:
Is there any reason for this order? Why, for example, would one not write the vertical | stroke to the bottom right directly after the 3rd stroke, ...
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Native speakers (basically) don't study radicals. So, how could they be useful for learning kanji? [closed]
In a recent post titled "Kanji identification?" the accepted answer stated that the "parts" for 「烙」 are "fire", "folding chair" and "mouth". Japanese native speakers don't understand what that means. ...
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Should I start with Hiragana, Katakana or Kanji? [closed]
I want to start learning to read Japanese (I already know romaji) and I was wondering which writing system would be better to start with. Or should I start all at the same time?
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What is "Sino-Japanese word order"?
In the answer to the thread What's the difference between 腹切{はらき}り and 切腹{せっぷく}? in the 1st paragraph, 2nd line, the author mentions "Sino-Japanese pronunciation and word order".
I assume that "Sino-...
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Why does 甲斐 use these particular kanji?
Inspired by a recent question about the proper way to write 生きがい, I wanted to ask a long-standing question.
According to Kotobank, 甲斐 has the following definitions (my poor translations follow):
かい
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How should I write "ikigai" in shodō?
I'd like to use ikigai ("something one lives for; purpose in life; raison d'être") for a calligraphy (shodō) work.
According to Tangorin there are three possible ways to write this:
生き甲斐
生きがい
生甲斐
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Kanji for におい - when do you use 匂い and when do you use 臭い?
Could someone help me understand when which kanji is used? For example I have seen 臭い on a packet of cat sand. I can't remember where I've seen the other but I found the following example sentence on ...
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What's the first character in the phrase 「?度乾燥しなさい」? [closed]
A couple days ago I came across the following Japanese phrase:
?度乾燥しなさい
"?" represents a character I was unable to recognize. Attempts at drawing it on Google Android handwriting input yielded 樶, ...
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What is the English equivalent of ストーリー総監修?
I'm confused as to the meaning of this cinematic term found in the credit of a movie. ストーリー総監修? Story Total Supervising Editor?? I'm not sure what this means. Is there any English equivalent to this ...
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Significance of 「温」 in 「温故知新」
This question came to my mind while playing 漢字読めるカナ for Android to pass time.
温故知新 is a 4-character idiom from the 論語, Confucian Analects, meaning to learn from the past.
It is a Chinese phrase* and ...
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Why "greengrocer" kanjis are 八百屋 (やおや)?
I've seen the last one (屋) many times before meaning something along the lines of "establishment where you can buy things or services".
However, the rest of the word confuses me. Doesn't the word 八百 ...
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Understanding the kanji 相 as "government minister"...?
One of the on'yomi readings of 相 is しょう. If I'm doing my legwork right, when it's read this way, it has an indication of government involvement, in words like (and here, I'm relying on my ...
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