Difference between meaning of Kanji that means Reason

I am on level seven and am working with the two Kanji that mean reason. ri and yuu (sorry I don’t have a japanese language setting installed on this computer). I was wondering in what context would you use these two words and how are they different?

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Going by the listings on Jisho

() means reason as in logic
So in context “I was confused, but I reasoned that it would be okay”

(よし) means reason as in significance or cause
So in context “There’s another reason, isn’t there?”

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Please keep in mind that one Kanji on its own does not necessarily form a valid word; so it’s not only interesting what the one-kanji word (if it exists) means but also in which words the Kanji is being used.

You can look those lists up in Jisho to get an idea about the concept that the kanji represents:

This is a list of words that use 理

This is a list of words that use 由

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Hmm do you think the translation of yoshi should be ‘cause’ then? It would help to differentiate the two uses while learning.

I think that’s too narrow of a definition since “reason” for 由 has an explanatory nuance to it.

Also, it doesn’t solve the problem because you then have to differentiate that from “cause” 因 at Level 17. :wink:

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