Say Something About The Kanji Above You

Japanese Language Kanji
21

The phonetic component of this kanji is 尚, which is said as しょう or とう. In this case, the on’yomi is とう.

This kanji has the same phonetic marker, but alas the pronunciation has changed!

常

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22

I always think this kanji kind of looks like a person. I quite like the words it appears in, like 常識 and 日常.

足

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23

Here is a good compound word with that kanji:
寝んじ不足 (にんじぶすく) lack of sleep, sleep deprivation! Lots of that around here!

From 翔猿 (とびざる):

翔 (I really like those feathers on the right side!)

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24

Oh, I know this one! To me, it looks like a soccer player, doing a drop kick, shooting the ball across the goal line into the goal.

My most recently learned kanji:

茶

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25

That one has real emotional connections for me, as I drink tea daily. I like how it is used for a color: 茶色.

This is related. Did you know that it can be used as a counter for bags of tea?

服

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26

Why do I instantly think of 制服.

That’s an interesting one. I’ve only seen 寝不足, which I guess is a bit more common.

藤 - I like the strokes and imagery that pops to mind.

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27

I wear kimono so I know a lot of flower kanji wisteria is such a dramatic and lovely spring flower heralding summer. It’s a fitting regal kanji.

Since it’s the end of summer I guess a kanji I think of 爽(そう) since it’s a small relief from Okinawa’s oppressive heat.

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28

Isn’t that kanji a bit SOUR ;).

29

it means refreshing and bracing which is something I like to look forward to at the end of summer. It’s also the name of a popular ice cream product.

30

I know, I was trying to make a pun with 爽やか. :pensive:

I see this in beer bottles sometimes.

EDIT: WK lvl 47!

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31

Oh I see! Very good! Yup it’s seen in beer bottles, teas, ice cream… basically anything you would want to refresh lol

Though I did a quick check on jisho when you said it the first time… I was like… wait what? lol

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32

何だその屁理屈な理論！

I like the logic in 尖.

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33

You really are becoming sharp [尖る(とかる)] to notice that kanji! Your award will be placed on the steeple 尖塔 (せんとう) for that!

I picked this next one because it is sometimes used for the same せん as 尖. (先端 , 尖端)

先

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34

I always remember a cartoon in a beginners Japanese class of a teacher holding a baton to point at stuff on the board. Can you see it?

教

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35

With that baton, they might be more of a 調教師 (ちょうきょうし). (animal trainer) :slight_smile:

Welcome to the community. @MConde! This place is the hub of Japanese learning. Many people here have knowledge and experience, and are glad to share it! Hope to see you around!

Here is a kanji related to knowledge. It is a little complicated, but it is made up of some simple radicals which makes it easier:

識

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36

I wonder, does this kanji have a kun’yomi, and if so, what is it? If I had to guess, I would guess しる, and I would be right :wink:! The difference with 知る is that 知る is only the moment of (new) knowledge entering your brain, but 識る is making connections with the knowledge that you have, in order to come to a deeper understanding, if I understand correctly the webpages I read when googling for the difference just now. Interesting, but fitting that these two come together to make 知識: knowledge!

Tangentially related: 恵

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37

A common kun’yomi of 恵 is めぐみ. I had thought that this was related to the bound morpheme -ぐむ (“to appear”), which appears in the homophonous word 芽めぐむ (“to bud, to sprout”).
However, looking it up, sources such as Japanese Wiktionary and Gogen, it seems that 恵めぐみ is in fact derived from めぐし, which is an old way of saying “painful to the eyes” (compare the modern-dary 目+苦しい).

It seems that, much like かわいい, 恵めぐみ originated as a word for something that evoked pity, and then morphed into something more positive and affectionate.

Speaking of things that are painful to the eyes: 縫

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38

縫う. This kanji reminds me of 逢う, which is very similar. At first glance it seems the only difference is the 糹, but if you look a bit longer, you’ll see that 逢 also has a extra drop on the scooter radical.

明

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39

The sun and the moon are bright! (even though technically the moon has no light at all and simply reflects light from the sun :stuck_out_tongue:)

々

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40

Kanji repeater !
Trivia: can be written individually by typing おなじ or のま in the IME. For a very long time I was wondering why のま… And then I learned it’s just because 々 look like the katakana ノマ squished together :sweat_smile:

Apparently there is also a kana repeater ゝ, and even a freaking word repeater 〱, but I have never seen any of them so far !

Next: 峠

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