Kanji - Level 1 - Kanji Flashcards
上
Above
Radicals: ト toe + 一 ground
You find a toe on the ground. It’s weird, because it’s above the ground, not where toes belong.
Reading: じょう
Of course when you find a toe above the ground, you want to know where the toe came from. When you examine it, you see a name written on there. This toe belongs to the local clumsy farmhand, Jourm (じょう).
下
Below
Radicals: 一 ground +ト toe
There’s a toe below ground.
Readings: か, げ
You keep digging for the toe below the ground, and instead of hitting a toe you hit something hard and metallic. You keep digging and digging around it, but it’s huge. Turns out, you found yourself a car (か). Keep digging until you unearth the car. Inside, you find the toe you were looking for.
大
Big
Radicals: 大 big
The big radical and the big kanji are exactly the same!
Readings: たい, だい
There’s this big guy (that’s how you remember the radical, remember?), and he’s wearing a huge Tie Dye (たい, だい) shirt. Because he’s so huge, the tie dye shirt is also super huge. Everything about him is pretty big, but the tie dye stands out more than anything.
工
Construction
Radicals: 工 construction
The construction radical and the construction kanji are the same!
This kanji also means industry, which is what construction is, if you think about it. It’s all part of the construction industry.
Readings: こう, く
You see some construction in front of you. There, standing shirtless (only a suspender and hard hat) is (こういち), looking back at you.
八
Eight
Radicals: 八 fins
This isn’t exactly the same as the fins radical (supposed to have little line on the top), but it’s close. Sometimes this will happen (where we have to use a slightly “modified radical” version of the original), so it’s good to understand that now, early on. In this case, we have fins. How many fins? Eight fins. How do you know that? Because you caught four fish with two fins each.
Readings: はち
After you count and smell all eight of your fins, it’s time to put them away. You open a large hatch (はち) and put them in. This is where you keep your fins, always putting in eight at a time because that’s what the boss wants.
入
Enter
Radicals: 入 enter
The kanji and the radical are the same, so remembering the meaning of this kanji is as simple as making sure you know the radical for enter first! If you know the radical, you know this kanji means enter as well.
Readings: にゅう
Turns out, after you enter the teepee (you’ll remember that the radical is a teepee with a big entrance to it), you’re given a new (にゅう) one! Now you have two teepees!
山
Mountain
Radicals: 山 mountain
The mountain radical and the mountain kanji are the same.
Readings: さん
Think about mountains talking to each other, calling each other by their names and adding the Japanese name-ender san (さん) to each of their names. “Hello, Everest-san.” “Oh hi, Fuji-san.”
口
Mouth
Radicals: 口 mouth
The mouth radical and the mouth kanji are exactly the same!
Readings: こう, く
Everyone agrees, (こういち)’s mouth is his best feature. You stare at it lovingly as he whispers sweet kanji readings to you.
九
Nine
Radicals: 九 nine
Nice! This kanji is the same as the radical that looks just like it (down to the meaning, even!). The radical is nine and the kanji is nine, making the meaning of this kanji really easy to remember as long as you know the radical first.
Readings: く, きゅう
Although this kanji has two on’yomi to learn, the pronunciations of those two on’yomi are very similar, so that should make them easier to remember.
When you were nine your favorite foods were cookies (く) and cucumbers (きゅう). Yum yum!
一
One
Radicals: 一 ground
Lying on the ground is something that looks just like the ground, the number One. Why is this One lying down? It’s been shot by the number two. It’s lying there, bleeding out and dying. The number One doesn’t have long to live.
Readings: いち, いつ
As you’re sitting there next to One, holding him up, you start feeling a weird sensation all over your skin. From the wound comes a fine powder (obviously coming from the special bullet used to kill One) that causes the person it touches to get extremely itchy (いち).
人
Person
Radicals: 人 person
Remember how the radical version of this kanji meant person because it’s a person walking from the side with their arms down? Well this is a person too!
Readings: にん, じん
Only one person at Nintendo (にん) complained about the new jeans (じん) policy, and that person was you.
力
Power
Radicals: 力 power
The radical and the meaning of this kanji are the same. Both are power.
Readings: りょく, りき
Who has the most power of anyone? It’s the Power Rangers. They are battling their arch enemy Ricky (りき). They defeat him and lock (りょく) him up, so that he can’t hurt anyone ever again.
川
River
Radicals: 川 river
The river radical and the river kanji are the same as each other!
Readings: かわ
You’re standing next to a river that’s actually used as a car wash (かわ).
七
Seven
Radicals: 七 seven
Lucky for you (as is the case with many of the lower-stroke kanji), this kanji is the same as the radical you’ve already learned. The radical that makes up this kanji is seven and the kanji (which is exactly the same) is also seven. So, if you know the radical, you know the meaning of the kanji as well.
Readings: しち
You know this kanji means Seven, so let’s use that to remember the reading too. Seven is a lucky number, usually, but this time it wasn’t so good.
Seven percent is all she got on her test after she cheated (しち) on it.
十
Ten
Radicals: 十 cross
This cross is the symbol for the number ten. A good way to remember this is to think about all the religions that have crosses and also important sets of tens.
Readings: じゅう
This cross in particular has ten jewels (じゅう) on it. Two on each arm and two in the middle. That’s ten jewels!
