Oh no... not this again

here we go again :grinning::broken_heart:
image

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I had so much trouble with those two so I ended up having to brute force it :sweat_smile:

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Good luck!

When I first saw them I thought it was a bug, and I nearly came to the forums to notify WK staff about it :joy::joy:

It took me a long time of close observation to finally get that it wasn’t a mistake…

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Sad to admit I have them both burned and looking at them now I can’t remember which is which :cry:

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For this my recommendation are the following words:
週末 - weekend
未来 - future (hence, the not yet part)

I actually have way more problems with compound kanji like 役 and 投 and all of the flavors of 粗, 相, 租, 祖 and 組.

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You’ve already learnt 木, right? The ‘fork’ at the bottom is the roots of the tree, and the horizontal line + the bit sticking out at the top are the branches. Now just pretend that the short line in 未 and 末 is on a journey towards the roots. (Imagine that it’s you, if that helps!)

  • In , the short line is still in the ‘branches and leaves’ zone, so it’s not there yet it will arrive in the future
  • In , the short line is already at the roots, so it’s at the end of its journey.

That’s how I remember the difference. I hope that helps. :slight_smile:

EDIT: Turns out 末 (short stroke below) can refer to the future as well – guess it’s about how things ‘end up’ in the ‘future’ – and it doesn’t even need to be with another kanji to do it! (Unlike 未来…) Therefore, I’m removing that element from the explanation. It’s probably a relatively rare meaning of 末, but just to avoid confusion…

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祖租相阻沮粗鉏跙岨蛆咀狙詛殂砠徂組駔そそそそそそそ

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Oh, those are tough ones! Somehow the trick that really helped me was to look at that top horizontal stroke, and to imagine it stretching out–in 未 the top stroke isn’t as wide as the rest of the kanji, so it’s not yet as wide as it could be. On the other hand, in 末 it stretches out as far as the lower strokes, so it ends like that and doesn’t go any further.

Edit: ah, and while I was typing Jonapedia beat me to a similar idea. :slight_smile:

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I use the not yet = jet thingy to remember.
because, well, yet rhymes with jet :man_shrugging:

for “not yet” the second line is longer so its like a jet fighter that grows wider towards the rear.
(Deltawing design is almost universal for modern fighter planes)

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yess these give me a bunch of trouble as well when i study outside of wanikani!!

this is super helpful, thank you!

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tysm, i’ll remember this!

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I like your idea too! I usually keep the shapes of strokes fixed in kanji I’m trying to remember, but that’s just a personal preference. Whatever works. :smiley:

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I remember which is which by realizing that the one that doesn’t look like a pine tree (matsu) is the one that is read まつ in on’yomi, A.K.A 末.

…This is weird, I know.

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I just did a quick search and it turns out that 末 (short stroke near the roots) on its own can also be linked to the ‘future’ so… maybe you want to just stick to ‘not yet’ when studying 未 (short stroke among the branches). I’ll add a strikethrough to what I wrote about the ‘future’.

PS: I guess it’s still sort of logical though, since how things ‘end up’ is essentially what their future will be… but worry about that later, because it’s just one meaning among many, and I don’t think it’s that common.

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I just got to this and I think of the longer stroke at the front of 末 as the jet putting its landing gear out to land. That only happens at the end of the flight. If the landing gear aren’t out yet in 未, can you land the jet? Not yet!

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my eyes suddenly forgot how to read anything

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且 looked like nothing when I was done

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Another irritating pair of kanji is 刺 and 剌

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FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF them. :smiley:

Having flashbacks and nervous twitches here :scream:

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This worked for me too. The way that I remembered it is: 末 has the long line at the end. 未 does not, so it must be the other one (“not yet”).

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