There’s maybe some confusion about the terminology. There’s a strict definition for radical and a loose definition for radical.
The 214 radicals are the strict definition. Each kanji only has one radical. They are used for cataloging kanji and determine how kanji are ordered in a kanji dictionary. The Japanese government gives schools the information they need to teach to kids on kanji and this is one element that gets officially defined.
The WK radicals fall under a loose definition. These are more like the parts that make up a kanji and have no official standing or categorization.
If you want a tool that converts kanji to WK’s radicals, you need to use something related to WK, because no one else will know what you’re talking about.
Hi polv,
So learning radicals from our wk covers all the radicals (including the radicals that doesn’t listed in the official 214 radicals) for learning kanji ?
Yes, there’s no official connection between the 214 radicals and WK radicals. WK uses a larger number and except for calling them “radicals” they are unrelated conceptually.
Why exactly do you want a “kanji to radical converter”? The site jisho.org has kanji parts info on kanji detail pages, but they might be unrelated to how WK does things.
[Edit: and of course you can also look at the WK detail page of a kanji to see which WK radicals it is made of.]
The strict definition@Leebo is talking about is that a kanji has exactly one radical. Wanikani “radicals” are all parts that make up a kanji, it’s like a decomposition of all parts, and some “WK radicals” never appear as “real radicals”. There are 478 WK radicals, but only 214 official ones.
Maybe you should get a few WK levels first before you worry about real radicals, they are not that essential in the beginning.
Yeah, there are only a few reasons why someone would want to learn about the 214 radicals.
They just want to know. Nothing wrong with that, it can give you some insights into kanji even if you don’t use the knowledge in a practical sense.
They want to use a paper kanji dictionary to look up kanji. You don’t really need to know anything about them to do this, but I figured I’d include it.
They want to take the Kanji Kentei, a proficiency exam aimed at native speakers. I fall into this category. I study radicals to the extent that the Kanken exams I take require me to know them.
@manoj937, welcome to WaniKani. There is no tool for looking up the radicals associated with a kanji. Whenever you view a kanji item, the components are usually also displayed.
Wanikani “radicals” have a blue background.
Kanji have a pink background.
Go to your Wanikani dashboard page, click on the pink Kanji circle.
Click on 1-10.
Kanji for levels 1-3 are displayed.
Click on any one of those kanji.
There is a heading “radical combination”
If you search by kanji, the map will show you its parts/radicals on the left side and related kanji on the right side of your kanji.
Of course, their parts/radicals do not correspond to WK radicals 1:1.
for sharing those links.
