In WK、the 揃 appears as扌plus 前 but in the dictionaries that I am using (JPN-ENG and JPN-JPN) this kanji is written differently although the WK version is also listed in the kanji dictionary but I think it is listed as a secondary (less used?) way of writing it. So did WK used the less common version so it would easily match its radicals? Even if I do a copy and paste from the WK page, the kanji is not displayed as it is being displayed in the WK page…
Are you talking about the difference between 目 and月 in the right hand portion? I think that’s just a matter of the font. I looked in a couple of different places, and the stroke diagrams all show the bottom of that element as open. They also all count it as 12 strokes, and closing off the bottom would add a thirteenth.
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I agree that it’s a difference of font. On my computer on WaniKani, I see this:
My understanding is that the right hand side of 揃 is the old form of 前, but since 揃 is not a jouyou kanji it may have missed out on the update. I’ve seen this happen with other kanji outside of jouyou (where they “miss” the update in many fonts) but I can’t think of an example. This is supported by wiktionary.
前 - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
揃 - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
The “extended” link for 揃 leads to Extended shinjitai - Wikipedia, which explains this phenomenon in more detail.
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Perhaps because it’s not a jouyou kanji and is primarily used in names. Names tend to be “grandfathered” in for the old forms.
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It’s how your device displays it, not WK. Common for non-joyo characters to be different in different places.
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Looks like it’s the font this time., though sometimes it really is a different unicode point.
If you want to check (unless it’s an image) – in a web browser, open DevTools (Inspect / F12), copy and paste the text into "揃".codePointAt(0) and enter. I got 25539.
In the end, radicals / parts matter most, more than things like dot direction and dot count.
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As everybody said it was a matter of fonts. In some other browser, I forced it to use the 教科書体 font and it displays it as everybody else.
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To add on top of what the other comments say it’s not uncommon for the same component to have several forms still in active use in common kanji. Examples include the 食 component in 飲 vs 餅 for instance, the various ways the bottom two strokes of 止 can be written in various kanji, and the bottom part of 虚 versus 墟 (what WK calls “spikes” and “cactus”, respectively).
These variations are honestly one of the most frustrating part of learning how to draw the kanji because I confuse them all the time.
You also have the other way around, like the 方 part of kanji like 施 which is in fact unrelated to 方 because it comes from 㫃. That’s why you often have that 方 + “gun” radical combination, it just means that originally the component isn’t in fact 方 but 㫃.
Also the “spirit” component of kanji like 社 is in fact very different of the one with an additional stroke in kanji like 初. The former comes from 示, the latter from 衣. I actually use that in my mnemonics to distinguish them instead of calling them both “spirit” like WK does.
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RTK calls those “altar” and “cloak” to distinguish them, but then it’s focusing more on teaching you to write so it wants to assign different keywords where you’re otherwise at risk of mixing them up.
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Yeah I can certainly understand wanikani’s rationale for not distinguishing them since the entire focus of the website is on recognition, not learning how to write.