Basic Kanji 2 — People, Nature, Direction

What You Will Learn in This Unit

You will learn 34 basic kanji that express people, nature, direction and size, and you will be able to read words made from these characters. Each kanji has an on-reading and a kun-reading, and even the same character is read differently in different words, so you must memorize the reading of each word. Readings are written in hiragana, and Hepburn romanization is added in parentheses to the kana readings.

Kanji Representing People

人(ひと, hito) is the most basic kanji meaning 'person'. When used alone, it is read with the kun-reading ひと, but within words it is often read with the on-readings じん or にん. 男(おとこ, otoko) means man, 女(おんな, onna) means woman, and 子(こ, ko) means child. 父(ちち, chichi) and 母(はは, haha) mean father and mother; when referring to or addressing one's own family, they are written 父さん(とうさん, tōsan) and 母さん(かあさん, kāsan). 友(とも, tomo) means friend, and 友人(ゆうじん, yūjin) means friend as a noun.

Kanji Representing Nature

山(やま, yama) means mountain, and 川(かわ, kawa) means river or stream. 山林(さんりん, sanrin) means mountain forest. 川 changes its initial sound to voiced after other words, so かわ is read がわ. This is called 連濁 (rendaku). Examples are 小川(おがわ, ogawa) and 天の川(あまのがわ, amanogawa). The の in 天の川 is a particle, which is covered in Unit 17.

天(てん, ten) means sky, and 気(き, ki) means spirit or energy. 天気(てんき, tenki) means weather. 雨(あめ, ame) means rain, and 大雨(おおあめ, ōame) means heavy rain. 花(はな, hana) means flower, 花見(はなみ, hanami) means flower viewing, and 花火(はなび, hanabi) means fireworks.

Kanji Representing Direction and Position

It is efficient to learn directions as paired words.

• 上(うえ, ue) ↔ 下(した, shita): up ↔ down
• 中(なか, naka) ↔ 外(そと, soto): inside ↔ outside
• 前(まえ, mae) ↔ 後ろ(うしろ, ushiro): front ↔ back
• 左(ひだり, hidari) ↔ 右(みぎ, migi): left ↔ right
• 東(ひがし, higashi), 西(にし, nishi), 南(みなみ, minami), 北(きた, kita): east, west, south, north

Some words combine two directions. 東西(とうざい, tōzai) means east and west, 南北(なんぼく, nanboku) means north and south, and 左右(さゆう, sayū) means left and right. 外国(がいこく, gaikoku) means foreign country.