oyo-bu, oyo-bosu, oyo-bi, kyū The major meaning of the character is “to reach.” Each reading has a slightly different meaning. Oyo-bu is a verb meaning “to reach” or “to spread.” It is used when something reaches a particular degree. In most cases, it has already exceeded a level of tolerance. The past form of “oyobu” [...]

warabe, dō Warabe is a classical noun meaning a child. Kodomo is a more ordinary expression when we talk about a child. We still use gakudō (schoolchildren) and jidō (children). Ji means a small child. Elementary school students are called jidō. As a title, I chose “children” rather than “a child.”  A child may be [...]

tei You might see the character in compounds like zōtei and kintei. Both mean giving somebody a gift. The zō of zōtei means “to give a gift.” The kin of kintei implies humbleness. The photo shows a book given to Tatsuzō Ishikawa, a novelist, by the famous literary critic Hideo Kobayashi. On the name card [...]

han This character implies selling something. It is used with other characters. One of the most important words for businesspeople is hambai. Both ham and bai mean sale or marketing. We have some styles in selling something. For example, “tsū shin hambai” means mail order sale. Nowadays, Internet sales are getting more common. We call [...]

hitsuji, yō Hitsuji means a sheep. Yōmō is wool. This character looks like a sheep, doesn’t it? Kohitsuji is a lamb. Yagi meaning a goat also uses today’s character. It consists of a mountain and a sheep. You cannot separate these characters by readings. For the Sheep of the Oriental zodiac, use another character reading [...]

waka-reru, betsu When something is betsu or betsumono, it is another thing or a different matter. When we want to distinguish two things, we often say, “soreto koreto wa betsu.” Sore means it and kore means this. Sabetsu means discrimination. The verb sabetsu-suru means “to discriminate against somebody.” The verb sabetsuka-suru means “to differentiate something.” [...]

hei, hyō Before I got to know hei or heishi (a soldier), I knew how suihei (a sailor) looked like from a children’s book with songs for kids. We sang the song, “Kamome no suiheisan (Seagull, a Soldier).” Kamome is a seagull. Draw the sweeping stroke on the top. Draw the vertical stroke touching the [...]

sakai, kyō Sakai is something that separates one area from another. Kyōkai also means the border or boundary of two areas. Both today’s character and the kai of kyōkai mean boundary. The following information is for advanced Japanese learners. An interesting adverbial expression is “misakai naku,” which means “without discrimination.” Since “naku” means “without,” misakai [...]

kuba-ru, hai (pai) Today’s character depicts a person arraying crocks of liquor. So it originally means to array. The verb kubaru means to distribute. When you hand out fliers, your action can be called “kubaru,” too. Other words meaning distribution are bumpai and haifu. “Bumpaisuru” and “haifu suru” mean “to hand out something.” The former [...]

in The meaning of this character is a member of a particular group. We never see this character alone. It always comes after a word that indicates the characteristics of the membership. A member of any group is called kaiin. Kai means a group or an organization. Kaiinshō means a member’s card. The suffix shō [...]