者 vs 身 ; what's the difference

Japanese Language
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Hey guys, can somebody explain the difference of these two kanjis to me? I just learned them in my lessons.
One is titled “someone” and the other “somebody” but if I translate it to german it’s literally the same to me. Would be a huge help ^^

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Have you learned any of the words that go with them? They’re actually not all that similar in usage. 身 usually has to do with actual body words. 者 is a person.

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3

actually, no. I just arrived at the new kanjis ^^ Maybe the vocabs will clear it up a bit more

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Yeah, for the purposes of WK, the “somebody” meaning is not the most helpful one they could have chosen. It usually means “body” in the words here. It can mean person as well, but less often among the chosen words.

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身 as a radical, which is introduced later, is named body though.

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Back when I learned Kanji outside WK, I had 者 memorized as person instead of someone and 身 as (some)body :speak_no_evil:
It works for me and the mnemonics for vocab. It’s not incorrect so maybe it’d help you too?

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Thanks for the replys and tips guys. This helped me a lot :slight_smile: Now I understand the difference way better. :+1:

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Just got to these kanji myself and immediately looked up what the difference was. Now I’ve got them as “person” and “body”. This conversation really helped, thanks.

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Well just to be clear, there’s a bit more nuance to 身 than only the body meaning. Especially when used in words like 独身 (single/unmarried), 出身 (person’s origin/hometown), or 身分 (social position/status).

So it’s wise to make sure you know all the kanji’s meanings, not only ‘body’.

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