Two vs ice radical

WaniKani Requesting Help
1

終 (end) is taught as these radicals:

  • thread
  • winter
  • two

寒 (cold) is taught as these radicals:

  • roof
  • spring
  • ice

However the two radical in 終 and the ice radical in 寒 look pretty much identical to me. How do I tell the difference?

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2

i think you’re right. they do look identical.

3

So wanikani radicals are a means to teach the kanji. If you can recognise the kanji, then identifying the component radicals are not that important. This is especially true since wanikani radicals are different to the “standard” radicals, where each kanji conventionally only has one.

(e.g. officially, the only radical in 寒 is 宀, and the only radical in 終 is 糸)

So the choice to identify the other component as “two” for one kanji and “ice” for the other is the Wanikani authors thought they fit better for either the mnemonic they were coming up with, or the meanings assigned by Wanikani (the link between ice and cold is likely in this case).

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4

Yeah I have a secret for you - most of wanikani’s radicals aren’t real radicals. They’re memory aids to help you tell a story. Whichever one works for you to remember the mnemonic, that’s the right one.

except bad example maybe because ice is actually one of the real radicals. But according to jisho.org it’s not in either one of those kanji

5

Well yeah, the strokes in the “ice” radical aren’t parallel. And it’s a left-side radical, not a bottom radical.

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