Saturday, March 21, 2009

7 More Kanji

ZEN, MAE - before, front
This is kind of a stretch. Well, we see three parts:
1. The bottom right is "sword" or "cut", much like in 帰る.
2. Apparently the part that looks like "moon" (月) is actually "meat" in radical form.
3. The top part we can take to look like horns. I can see that.
So to remember this kanji, the mneumonic is before cutting meat, cut off the horns.
ex.
午前 (ごぜん)- A.M.
名前 (なまえ)- name

く KA(ku), SHO - write
We see the familiar hand grasping something in this kanji. In this case, it's grasping a calligraphy brush (you have to imagine the 2 traversal lines being the brush hairs). Of course, we see 日, day, underneath. So, remember to "write every day with that calligraphy brush".
ex. 辞書 (じしょ) - dictionary

 TOMO, YUU - friend
Hmm. They say this kanji is supposed to represent 2 right hands. You know, some sort of common mutual friendship.
ex. 友達 (ともだち) - friend
ex. 友人 (friend)

WA, HANASHI, HANA(su) - speak, talk/story
We see the 言 radical again in this kanji, meaning words. On the right, we see a kanji meaning tongue (see the forked tongue coming out of the mouth?). So, a wagging tongue speaks words.
ex. 会話 (かいわ) - dialogue
ex. 電話 (でんわ) - telephone

SUKO(shi), SUKU(nai), SHOU - little
Although the kanji for small 小 is similar, this takes it further, adding one more stroke to indicate an even smaller size. But in any case, this kanji refers to a small quantity, not size.
ex. 少し (すこし) - little
ex. 少ない (すくない) - few
ex. 少々 (しょうしょう) - a little

CHI, SHI(ru) - know
The part on the left is "arrow", which can kind of be remembered as "big arrow with a broken tip" (大 on the bottom, with just one side of a A-shaped tip left). Our favourite 口 (mouth) on the right indicates speaking. Thus, speaking with the speed of an arrow. You only can do that if you really know your stuff!
ex. 知人 (ちじん) - acquaintence

RAI, KU(ru) - come
We see the ever-recognizable 米 (rice) in this kanji. But it's topped by 十 (ten). We can say that ten grains come out from each rice plant, right?
ex. 来る (くる) - to come
ex. 来週 (らいしゅう) - next week, ie. the week to come

1 comment:

  1. Wow! this blog is a great (pink!..) resource to learn Japanese!! Thank you for sharing your knowledge ^^ does it come from the book "Remembering the kanji?"

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