Learn about the word radical 木
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| Hi everyone. |
| Welcome to the Japanese Kanji video series. |
| In this lesson, you'll learn the "wood" radical. |
| Take a look at these kanji characters. Can you guess what they mean? |
| By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to grasp the meaning behind these kanji characters. |
| 木, 机, 村, 林 |
| First off, can you spot the radical in all of these kanji characters? |
| It's this part here. |
| 木 |
| This particular radical is called… |
| き. |
| When it's used on the left side as in the other three examples, it's specifically called きへん, because へん means "left-position" radical. |
| The "wood" radical is used in some of the most common kanji characters. Let's take a look at it in more detail. |
| Meaning |
| The meaning behind this particular kanji is "tree, wood." |
| 木 |
| When this radical appears as a part of another kanji, like in these examples, the appearance changes slightly. When it's a component like this, it adds the meaning of "tree, wood" to the entire kanji character. |
| 木, 机, 村, 林 |
| From left to right, the first kanji means "tree, wood," the second means "desk, table" the third character means "village, town" and fourth character means "grove, forest." |
| This radical is a kanji by itself, as seen in the first example. |
| 2. 机 |
| The second kanji has the "wood" radical, paired with this second character 几. |
| Here's an easy way to remember this: Think of this kanji character, 几, as a big board. So the "wood" radical and this character to the right 几, together, they mean "desk, or table." |
| 3. 村 |
| The third kanji means "village, town." |
| 4. 林 |
| The last kanji has two "wood" radicals next to each other and means "grove, forest." |
| You could think of this in this way: trees following one after another. It's exactly a "grove." |
| For more ways to remember these characters and many more kanji examples that include the "wood" radical, go to JapanesePod101.com and check the Lesson Notes PDF. |
| OK. Let's move on! |
| Common positions |
| The "wood" radical has more than one common positions. If it sits in the left-position it connects with another radical to the right of it. |
| As seen in the original examples for "desk, table," "village, town" and "grove, forest." |
| In this case the “wood” radical is squished vertically. |
| Sometimes, you may find it at the top-position, known as the "crown-position" as seen in this example. |
| 森 |
| In the previous original example we saw that two "wood" radicals following one after another meant "grove." Now adding one more "wood" radical in this kanji results the meaning "forest, woods." Here the "wood" radical shrinks in size. |
| Okay. Now let's learn how to write this radical. |
| Stroke Order |
| The "wood" radical is very simple, there are only four strokes. |
| When the radical is on its own, it looks like this: |
| 木 |
| The first stroke is a horizontal stroke from left to right. |
| The second is a long vertical stroke, beginning above our first stroke. |
| Our third stroke starts at the intersection of our first two strokes and goes diagonally down from right to left. |
| And our final stroke starts again at this intersection, but goes diagonally down from left to right. |
| When it sits in the left-position, the stroke order is the same as when the kanji is on its own. The big difference is that we make the horizontal and the diagonal strokes shorter. And when it's in the the "crown-position," it shrinks in size. |
| And that's it! You're done! |
| Common Readings |
| When the "wood" radical is on its own, the kanji can be read as... |
| 木 |
| ボク、モク、き、こ |
| And when the "wood" radical is a part of another kanji... |
| キ、つくえ |
| 机 |
| for the kanji meaning "desk, table." |
| ソン、むら |
| 村 |
| for the "village, town" kanji. And... |
| リン、はやし |
| 林 |
| for the "grove, forest" kanji. |
| Lesson Review |
| In this lesson, you learned about the "wood" radical. |
| You also learned the kanji characters for "desk, table," "village, town," and "grove, forest," in which this radical appears. |
| It's most commonly found in the left-position, making it appear like this 木. |
| And it's written with four strokes, starting with a horizontal line, a vertical line going through the first stroke, and then two diagonal lines starting from the intersection. |
| In the next lesson, you'll learn about another common radical used in some of the most common and basic kanji characters, the "water" radical. |
| See you in the next lesson. Bye! |
| Bye~! |
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