Cross vs. Ten

Hey all, a little bit confused because I read on the WK blog that if a single radical makes up a whole kanji, like in the case of 十, the mnemonic will match the kanji’s meaning. But WK calls the radical “cross”, rather than ten. I learned it previously as ten. Is it just a one off, or are there more like this? It just puts me off that I might not be learning the actual meaning and just a WK invented mnemonic.

I guess it’s no big deal, it just threw me off a little. Thanks!

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Yes. Turns out that “Lip ring” isn’t an actual kanji. Who knew?

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Where does the WK blog say that? There’s plenty of radicals that have names different to the kanji they match. Though, if the radical is introduced after the kanji, they do tend to match. WaniKani does this sometimes to simplify the mnemonics of later kanji - WaniKani’s radicals are more mnemonic components than radicals, and certainly don’t match any official list of radicals.

You’re free to add a user synonym - anything you add as a synonym will also be accepted as a correct answer.

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Don’t worry, when you’re learning radicals you’re not supposed to be learning kanji meanings anyways, but yes, that threw me off a little as well.

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The 一 radical is called ground. It makes for funner mnemonics, which stick better.

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I never have to think twice about poop 幺 :poop:

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So does cross plus ten equal thirty?

Yeah, within the first two levels there are:
一 radical: ground, kanji: one
八 radical: fins, kanji: eight
又 radical: stool, kanji: again

Most of the time if the radical and the kanji look the same then the meaning is the same as well but sometimes it’s not.

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You can always add your own synonym. It might muck up the mnemonic story of future kanji, but it gets it out of your queue.

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