Help!
I do two different sites for learning kanji/vocab. It’s pretty much the same stuff, but it helps me remember. I just unlocked 下す (to lower) on one website, but on WaniKani I’ve already learned 下げる (to lower.) They both have different pronunciations as well. I’m now confused as if I didn’t already have a hard enough time remembering which starts with さ and which starts with あ between the get lowers and the raises.
下す is not a word you’re going to encounter all that often.
It’s labeled as a “common word” on Jisho, but there are 21000 entries there with the same label. Most people aren’t thinking that broadly when they imagine “common” words.
I can’t honestly remember the last time I heard someone use it in everyday speech, if it’s ever happened at all for me.
It’s possible that the abstract usage of “to hand down” as in “to hand down a sentence” or “to pass judgment” might show up if you read crime newspaper articles.
Anyway, 下げる is absolutely a beginner word, something you need in your first 500-1000 words. 下す might be in your first 21000, but I wouldn’t sweat it.
EDIT: And one more thought… this reminds me of when I first started learning Japanese and I had no idea of what associated words were good to know and which ones could wait. So I was frequently overwhelmed with things like 下 and 生, because lots of resources don’t even try to tell you what the frequencies of various readings are. くだ is a great reading to know for 下, but not because of the word 下す. You need it for 下さる (and by extension, 下さい). The word 下り will also show up if you ride trains in Japan.
Thank you! I saw that and was immediately confused. I know that there would be more words with almost identical meanings (from looking at the community posts,) but I didn’t think I’d run into one this soon, but I suppose that’s what I get when I use two different websites at the same time.
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