Omg I just noticed that the example sentence has こんこん in hiragana beside the kanji. When you copy and paste a sentence that has furigana above the kanji, it will put it as hiragana beside the kanji, and I forgot to go and delete that. /sigh. The correct example sentence is:
ゆき子が昏々と眠った。
Okedoke. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get on to this word and its kanji.
昏
On-yomi: kon
Kun-yomi: kura.i, kure
Meaning: dark, evening, dusk
This kanji is made of two different parts: 氏 and 日. 氏 represents a person and 日 is the sun. The person is standing above the sun, and therefore this kanji is a pictograph of “the sun falling to a person’s footsteps,” which is a rather pretty way to describe the sun setting. And of course, after the sun sets, it becomes dark, which explains why this kanji means “dark.”
Now, why does the word “konkon” mean fast asleep? Well, most people tend to sleep at night haha. Of note, this kanji appears in the word for “coma,” which is 昏睡 konsui. So this kanji has nuances of a very deep sleep.
JLPT Level: Unlisted, but the kanji are N1 and N3 respectively.
Alright, this is a pretty interesting word that’s seen some changes in meaning and usage over the centuries.
滅
On-yomi: metsu
Kun-yomi: horo.biru, horo.bu, horo,bosu
Meaning: destroy, ruin, overthrow, perish
法
On-yomi: hou, ha, ho, furan
Kun-yomi: nori
Meaning: method, law, rule, principle, model, system
If we put the two together, we get “The Law of Destruction,” which could be a pretty rad metal song.
Originally, this was a Buddhist term used to refer to…something too hard for me to wrap my pea brain around haha. Really trying to remember everything I learned in that one Buddhist Philosophy course I took in uni back in the day.
Okay okay. Basically, all things in existence are divided into two categories:
Conditioned existence (a.k.a. things created by fate). This is known as saṃskṛta in Sanskrit.
Those that have transcended conditioned existence. This is known as asaṃskṛta in Sanskrit.
Meppou is the old Japanese Buddhist term for “things that have transcended conditioned existence.” This can mean that a thing has reached Nirvana, something that is “absolute.”
From that meaning, meppou came to mean something “extraordinary” or “terrible and intense” like a historic typhoon.
Most of the time, meppou is used in the phrase 滅法強い meppou tsuyoi, “terribly powerful.”
JLPT Level: N1, and the kanji are N1 and unlisted respectively.
Most of the time, this word is written in hiragana. But the kanji are funny, so I’m gonna talk about those too.
矢
On-yomi: ya
Kun-yomi: shi
Meaning: dart, arrow
鱈
On-yomi: setsu
Kun-yomi: tara
Meaning: codfish
So…put these two together and you get… “shooting codfish with arrows” and somehow that is supposed to mean “indiscriminately; blindly; at random; recklessly; thoughtlessly; excessively; profusely.”
I bet you’re ready for me to blow your mind with some anecdote from like 700 years ago about some old Japanese hermit who only had an arrow and spent everyday in the same stream trying to catch cod unsuccessfully, because he was an idiot and didn’t know that cod were an ocean fish and not a freshwater fish.
…But actually, these are just ateji. Ateji are kanji whose meaning have nothing to do with the word they are used in. Their pronunciation just conveniently matches the word. So “arrow” and “codfish” have absolutely nothing to do with yatara and its meaning.
This is one of the coolest words I have found to date. Look at those meanings!! To boast, to roar, to recite a poem to oneself. It’s so rich and nuanced! And then look at how dang cool the kanji looks!! Also, let’s not forget that the pronunciation, “usobuku” sounds like 嘘吹く (uso fuku, to tell lies like the wind blows), which is not a real expression but is immediately what my mind goes to.
It appears that long ago, this kanji used to be used for whistling. But not just any whistling–this is for the whistling people did to imitate bird calls.
Nowadays, this word is very seldom used, and it is never used in reference to bird calls. But it’s really cool!
Meaning: distract, be mistaken for, go astray, divert
物
On-yomi: butsu, motsu
Kun-yomi: mono
Meaning: thing, object, matter
So if we put these two together we get “something that one mistakes for something else.” Pretty easy to understand, I think. I wanted to talk about the etymology of the kanji 紛 but I couldn’t find anything. T-T
JLPT Level: Unlisted, but the kanji are N4 and N5 respectively.
This is a pretty low-frequency word. It sounds pretty old-timey, and it makes sense because I found it in a manga that takes place in the Edo Period haha.
Let’s take a look at the kanji:
夜
On-yomi: ya
Kun-yomi: yo, yoru
Meaning: night, evening
半
On-yomi: han
Kun-yomi: naka.ba
Meaning: half, middle, odd number, semi-, part-
Put them together and you get “the middle of the night.” Pretty easy, right?
You’re very unlikely to see this kanji in a book, as they’d probably write it in katakana. However, this is sometimes used in last names.
You may recognize the ⺾ radical at the top. This is the “grass” radical and represents “plants.” The other three radicals, 曼, when put together like this, mean “long.”
Here we see the very original kanji for tsuru. At the top we have grass planted in a row. Beneath those we have a hat, followed by a hand, an eye, and another hand at the bottom. I’m not sure why there’s a “hat” here, but there is a hand above and below the eye to signify someone holding out their hands to gesture how tall or “long” something is.
So, something “long” 曼 plus “grass” ⺾ = vines. pretty easy!
Also, as a sidenote, most kanji with 曼 have an on-yomi of “man.”
This has an etymology different from what I had expected. Let’s look at the parts!
⼖ to conceal, hide
若 soft mulberry leaves
Now, anyone who has been studying their kanji is probably looking at that definition of 若 and going, “Omoi-no-hoka, you’ve lost the plot” because 若 means young.
And see, I knew that it meant “young” too, so I thought maybe this was a reference to something like “protect the women andchildren.”
But nope! This, my friends, is all in reference to silkworms.
Silk was an incredibly important textile in Japan. The silkworms live in mulberry trees, eating the young, soft leaves. 匿 represents the mulberry leaves that fill up the silkworms’ bellies and stay hidden there.
JLPT Level: Unlisted, but the kanji are N4 and N3 respectively.
While not a super common word, you do have a chance of hearing it in conversation once in a blue moon. It’s also incredibly easy to understand once you know the parts.
言い ii, to say
伝え tsutae, to communicate, transmit
So 言い伝え is something that is spoken and transferred from one generation to the next.
Okay. I knew going in that this kanji wasn’t going to have a very cheerful etymology because of its meaning, but it’s way, way darker than I had imagined. Brace yourselves for some pretty morbid stuff.
嘆 is made of two parts: 口 (mouth) and 漢 without the ⺡. Generally, 漢 represents “China.” But not in this kanji. Ohhhhh no. Strap yourselves in.
In ancient Japan, many different sacrifices were made to different gods, and when there were famines due to drought, miko (Shinto shrine priestesses) were burned alive as human sacrifices.
The 漢 part of this kanji represents 旱魃 Kanbatsu, which can mean either “drought” or “the God of Drought.”
So if you put mouth 口 and the God of Drought 漢 without the ⺡together, you get, “a cry to the God of Drought.”
Nowadays, I would say that almost no Japanese people know about the dark rituals this kanji alludes to. This word is used most often for grieving or mourning, though, so there is still a connection to death.
So we can put these two kanji together to get the literal meaning of “reaching the bottom.” How does that come to mean “cannot possibly,” or “no matter how”?
Well, I did some expert googling but was unable to find anything. :(
My personal opinion, though, is that it’s either of two things:
“I am certain to the bottom of my heart that this is impossible.”
Even if you reach down within yourself and do your best, it is impossible.”
Those are just guesses, and I’m not a native speaker, but that’s my take.
Aha!! At long last, a word that is on the JLPT haha.
I could only find one source that explained this kanji. Let’s see what it has to say.
Nowadays, this kanji is a combination of 月 (moon) and 危 (danger). However, the 月 radical can also refer to meat or flesh, and that is meaning it has in this kanji. 危 does mean danger, but actually, the original version of this kanji had 色 (color) there.
Buuuuut, the 色 didn’t actually mean “color” in this kanji. It was a pictograph of someone embracing another from behind.
…I can’t really see it, but I’ll believe you, book.
The book goes on to explain that this original version of moroi with 月 and 色 represented the sensation of touching another person. 脆 represented “softness, beauty, something with a pleasant texture.”
So it appears as though the kanji has a pretty different meaning from the adjective it’s used for, moroi, which means “fragile, brittle, or tender-hearted.”
But if you give it a really hard think, they are certainly connected. A central pillar of Japanese culture is appreciating the beauty of life, because all life is impermanent. So the beauty of a person, in particular, would be a fragile thing, especially back in the day when people had much shorter life spans. That likely gave birth to the “fragile, brittle” meaning.
And once the “fragile, brittle” meaning came to be, that metaphor was extended to people who “break down” into tears easily.
That was a rather winding explanation. Hope it made sense!
29.07.2019 | Today I dated my boyfriend to a bookstore on my town blocks, we bought a lot of law books for preposterous prices and we were walking the rest of the day by the little pits, talking, taking pictures. It was a very relaxing and quiet day, to make up for the madness that’s gonna be my semester from Wednesday.
Kanji is the hardest part of Japanese. Even harder than the particles, if you ask me. How do you know whether the kanji is on-yomi or kun-yomi? How do you keep straight kanji that look super similar? What do they even MEAN?! Why are there SO MANYYYY?!
Excuse me while I scream into the void
There are some kanji that have no rhyme or reason to their reading or meaning. But there are actually many meaning-based and pronunciation-based patterns hidden within kanji, and if you can unlock them, your life will be 100 times easier.
So in today’s segment, I thought I’d introduce one radical and common kanji that contain it. This list is not exhaustive, but I made a list of all the kanji with the radical that I could think of off the top of my head.
Our radical for this episode is:
金
As a standalone kanji, it means “gold.” But as a radical, it means “metal.” Radicals tend to either provide a clue to the kanji’s pronunciation or its meaning. The metal radical almost always provides a clue to the meaning and has no bearing on pronunciation.
金
JLPT Level: N5
Meaning: gold
On-yomi: kin, kon, gon
Kun-yomi: kane, kana-, -gane
銀
JLPT Level: N4
Meaning: silver
On-yomi: gin
Kun-yomi: shirogane (lit. “white gold”)
Tricks to remember it: The radical on the right is a simplification of 良, which means “good.” Remember that silver is the “good gold.”
Note: The kun-yomi “shirogane” is almost never used.
針
JLPT Level: N2
Meaning: needle, pin, staple, stinger
On-yomi: shin
Kun-yomi: hari
Tricks to remember it: The cross radical on the right looks like a needle!
鈍
JLPT Level: N2
Meaning: dull, slow, foolish, blunt
On-yomi: don
Kun-yomi: nibu.i, nibu.ru, nama.ru, namaku.ra
Tricks to remember it: …sorry, I got nothing.
鉄
JLPT Level: N2
Meaning: iron
On-yomi: tetsu
Kun-yomi: kurogane (lit. “black gold”)
Tricks to remember it: The radical in the right is an arrow. Remember that arrow tips were made with iron.
Note: The kun-yomi “kurogane” is almost never used.
Tricks to remember it: …sorry, I got nothing again.
銅
JLPT Level: N2
Meaning: Copper, bronze
On-yomi: dou
Kun-yomi: akagane (lit. “red gold”)
Tricks to remember it: the radical on the right is actually the kanji 同 (same, identical), so you can think that “copper and bronze are the same.”
Note: The kun-yomi “akagane” is almost never used.
釣
JLPT Level: N1
Meaning: angling, fishing, catch, allure, ensnare
On-yomi: chou
Kun-yomi: tsu.ru, tsu.ri
Tricks to remember it: the radical on the right is curved like a fishing hook.
鉛
JLPT Level: N1
Meaning: lead (the metal)
On-yomi: en
Kun-yomi: namari
Tricks to remember it: The two radicals on the right are 八 (eight) and 口 (mouth). If you put lead in your mouth eight times, you’re gonna regret it.
Note: Unlike the other metals I introduced above, the kun-yomi is used most frequently to refer to lead.
銭
JLPT Level: N1
Meaning: coin, .01 yen, money
On-yomi: sen, zen
Kun-yomi: zeni, suki
Tricks to remember it: The radical on the right kinda looks like the kanji 残 nokoru, which means “to remain, to be left over.” Since zeni means “a small amount of money,” you can remember it as “the money you have left over after buying something.”
鈴
JLPT Level: N1
Meaning: small bell, buzzer
On-yomi: rei, rin
Kun-yomi: suzu
Tricks to remember it: The radical on the right, 令 means “command,” and you usually put a bell on the animals that you command.
Note: “Suzu” is also the name for “tin” because bells were often made of tin. The kanji for tin is 錫, but it is pretty low frequency.
鎌
JLPT Level: N1 (I literally cannot believe this is on the JLPT????)
Meaning: Sickle, scythe, trick
On-yomi: ren, ken
Kun-yomi: kama
Tricks to remember it: The radical on the right is actually the kanji 兼 (beforehand, in advance). Ready your scythe before the harvest!
鏡
JLPT Level: N1
Meaning: mirror, speculum
On-yomi: kyou, kei
Kun-yomi: kagami
Tricks to remember it: the two radicals on the right are 立 (stand) and 見 (look). In olden days, mirrors were made not of glass but of polished metal (usually copper or bronze). So a mirror is a piece of metal (金) that you stand (立) in front of and look (見) into.
鋼
JLPT Level: N1
Meaning: Steel
On-yomi: Kou
Kun-yomi: Hagane
Tricks to remember it: Hmmm. I got nothing. Just remember our favorite 鋼の錬金術師 (Hagane no Rinkinjutsu-shi), Edward Elric.
Note: “Hagane” is used most frequently to refer to this metal.
鍛
JLPT Level: N1
Meaning: forge, discipline, train
On-yomi: tan
Kun-yomi: kita.eru
Tricks to remember it: The radical on the right is actually the kanji 段 (grade, stairs). When you train yourself, your progress occurs in steps.
鎖
JLPT Level: N1
Meaning: chains, iron, connection
On-yomi: sa
Kun-yomi: kusari, toza.su
Tricks to remember it: Hmm… Any ideas?
鍋
JLPT Level: Unlisted
Meaning: pot, pan, kettle
On-yomi: ka
Kun-yomi: nabe
Tricks to remember it: The right half looks like a bunch of pots stacked up on each other.
釘
JLPT Level: Unlisted
Meaning: nail, tack, peg
On-yomi: tei, chou
Kun-yomi: kugi
Tricks to remember it: The 丁 on the right looks like a nail with a bent tip!
鎧
JLPT Level: Unlisted
Meaning: armor, put on armor, arm oneself
On-yomi: kai, gai
Kun-yomi: yoroi, yoro.u
Tricks to remember it: The right half of it kinda looks like a suit of armor, right? The 山 on top is the helmet, and the 豆 beneath it is the torso and legs standing on the ground!
釦
JLPT Level: Unlisted
Meaning: button
On-yomi: kou, ku
Kun-yomi: botan
Tricks to remember: the 口 on the right looks like a button!
Note: This kanji is almost never used, but you can see it on the emergency stop button for escalators sometimes.
鍵
JLPT Level: Unlisted (…but freaking SCYTHE is on the JLPT???)
Meaning: Key
On-yomi: ken
Kun-yomi: kagi
Tricks to remember it: The radical on the right is actually the kanji 建 (build), and you often need a key to enter a building.
釜
JLPT Level: Unlisted
Meaning: kettle, cauldron, iron pot
On-yomi: fu
Kun-yomi: kama
Tricks to remember it: Hmm….I got nothing.The top radical is 父 (father), so maybe…Dad’s job is to tend to the kettle?
A lot of people seem to think that expressing your feelings in Japanese is difficult, and while it can be, there are a lot of different variations used in Japanese to express feelings. I promise it isn’t that bad!
First, let’s start with some vocabulary:
喜怒哀楽
きどあいらく = human emotions (joy, anger, humor, etc)
Common Nouns: In Japanese, い-adjectives can often become nouns (高い = tall, 高さ = height). Be careful not to use adjectives on accident when you should use nouns!
気持ち（きもち）feeling(s)
気分（きぶん）feeling(s)/mood
感情（かんじょう）emotions
喜び（よろこび）delight
幸せ（しあわせ）happiness
怒り（いかり）anger
悲しみ（かなしみ）sadness
Common Verbs: Similarly, a lot of adjectives/nouns and verbs share the same stems, but will have different endings. Be careful!
喜ぶ（よろこぶ）to be delighted
悲しむ（かなしむ）to be sad
怒る（おこる）to be/get angry
激怒する（げきどする）to be furious
憤慨する（ふんがいする）to be furious
You’ll commonly see these verbs appear in て-form in order to describe a present state, such as 怒っている (to be in a state of anger) or 喜んでいる (to be in a state of delight).
Common Adjectives:
嬉しい（うれしい）happy
悲しい（かなしい）sad
楽しい（たのしい）fun
辛い（つらい）hard/tough/painful
きつい hard/tough
凄い（すごい）wow, great
やばい expresses various things
When describing your own happiness, it’s more natural to use 嬉しい and not 喜んでいる. However, when describing someone else’s happiness, you should use 喜んでいる and not 嬉しい.
辛い（辛い）and 辛い（からい）look the exact same, but one means “tough” and the other means “spicy.” Pay attention to context!
Expressing your emotions
When describing your own emotions, it’s actually quite uncommon to use any first person pronouns (such as 私) unless the subject is not at all clear. Likely, though, the subject is you and the listener knows this.
Joy & Happiness
あ〜、嬉しいな！ー I’m happy! な is often used in Japanese when expressing your feelings あ, ああ, and あー are also often used やった〜！ー Yay! イェーイ！ー Yaaay! 楽しい！ー Fun! 楽しすぎる ー Using すぎる can express the nuance of “too much fun” ワクワクする ー I’m getting excited! It’s common in Japanese to use onomatopoeia to express emotion! すごい！ー Wow! Great! This is commonly used in variations (すご〜い！すげえ！and so on)
Relief & Surprise
あ〜、よかった！ー I’m relieved! 安心した（あんしん）ー I feel relieved. え〜！ー What? うそ！ー No way! まさか ー No way! It can’t be true. まじ ー Really? No way! Seriously? まじか ー Really? No way! Seriously? This one is sometimes seen as more masculine 信じられない ー I can’t believe it
Nervousness & Sadness
緊張する（きんちょう）ー I’m nervous… Really common, and can also be used in its て-form! ドキドキする ー I feel nervous. 悲しい（かなしい）ー I’m sad. 寂しい（さみしい・さびしい）ー I’m lonely / I miss someone 憂鬱（ゆううつ）ー Depression 気が滅入る（きがめいる）ー I feel depressed がっかり ー I’m disappointed 落ち込む（おちこむ）ー I’m getting upset!
Anger
ひどい！ー That’s terrible! You’re awful! イライラする ー I feel irritated 頭にきた ー I’m so pissed off ムカつく ー I’m angry
If you talk to a Japanese person for any length of time, you’ll hear this come up quite often. The readings are “かんじ” and “かんじる”. Remember that the meaning of 感 is “feeling,” so if you see it in kanji compounds you’re likely dealing with someone to do with feeling (emotion or otherwise).
感じ is the noun form and 感じる is the verb form:
どんな感じがしましたか？How did you feel?
どんな感じましたか？How did you feel?
These feelings can be both physical andemotional.
変な感じがした… へんなかんじがした… I felt strange…
彼女はなんか冷たい感じがするね。 かのじょはなんかつめたいかんじがするね。 She seems to be kind of cold, huh?
地震があったみたいだけど何も感じなかった。 じしんがあったみたいだけどなにもかんじなかった。 It seems there was an earthquake but I didn’t feel anything.
There are a lot of colloquial uses as well, particularly: って感じ, which is a really common way for Japanese to express the feeling of “it’s like…”
学校はね…もういいかなって感じ。 I think I’ve had enough with school.
私ばかり働いているって感じ。 I feel like I’m the only one that works.
You can use って感じ in a lot of ways, and it’s especially common when speaking.
気がする
Use this when expressing that you sense something/feel something but can’t quite understand why you feel that way.
If you’re breaking up with your significant other, you might say something like 私たち、もう終わりのような気がする which roughly translates to “I feel like we’re over now.”
面白いことが起きるみたいな気がする… おもしろいことがおきるみたいなきがする… I feel like something interesting will happen…
旅行したい気がする。 りょこうしたいきがする。 I feel like going on a trip.
食べる気がしない。 たべるきがしない。 I don’t feel like eating.
Try to express your emotions as much as possible when talking to people, especially if you’re talking about your day or something that you did with that person. It adds a personal touch and will make sure your conversation remains warm for both of you.
