Learn about the land radical 土
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| Hi everyone. |
| Welcome to the Japanese Kanji video series. |
| In this lesson, you'll learn the "land" 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. |
| 土, 地, 坂, 場 |
| First off, can you spot the radical in all of these kanji characters? |
| It's this part here. |
| 土 |
| This particular radical is called... |
| つち. |
| When it's used on the left side as in the other three examples, it's specifically called つちへん, because へん means "left-position" radical. |
| It's otherwise known as the "land" radical and it's used in some of the most common of all kanji characters. Let's take a look at it in more detail. |
| Meaning |
| On its own, the "land" radical looks like this. |
| 土 |
| We mentioned before that some radicals can be kanji on their own. |
| This radical is one such example. |
| The meaning behind this particular kanji is "soil, earth, ground." Here's an easy way to remember this: this kanji looks like a man standing on the "land" with his arms spreading. Can you picture it in your head? |
| 土 |
| 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 "soil, earth, ground" to the entire kanji character. |
| 土, 地, 坂, 場 |
| From left to right, the first kanji means "soil, earth, ground," the second means "ground, earth" the third character means "slope, incline, hill" and fourth character means "location, place." |
| 2. 地 |
| The second kanji has the "land" means "ground, earth." |
| 3. 坂 |
| The third kanji has the "land" radical paired with the kanji 反, which means "wrapped" or "curved." You could think of this character as imagining a wrapped or curved land. |
| This kanji means "slope, incline, hill." |
| 4. 場 |
| The last kanji has the "land" radical means "location, place." |
| For more ways to remember these characters and many more kanji examples that include the "land" radical, go to JapanesePod101.com and check the Lesson Notes PDF. OK. Let's move on! |
| Common positions |
| The "land" 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 main examples. |
| It can also be in the bottom-position, known as the "foot-position," like in this example meaning "exist, outskirts, located in." |
| 在 |
| When the "land" radical is part of another kanji character, it's squished vertically or shrinks in size. |
| 寺, 地, 在 |
| Okay. Now let's learn how to write this radical. |
| Stroke Order |
| Now let's take a look at the stroke order of the "land" radical. The "land" radical is very simple. There are only three strokes. |
| When the radical is on its own, it looks like this: |
| 土 |
| Start with a horizontal stroke in the middle. |
| Our second stroke is a vertical stroke going through the middle of the first. |
| And the final stroke is a longer horizontal stroke at the bottom of the vertical stroke. |
| When this radical is a part of another kanji, it's squished vertically or shrinks in size. |
| Like in this example, meaning "ground, earth." |
| 地 |
| And that's it! You're done! |
| Common Readings |
| When the "land" radical is on its own, the kanji can be read as... |
| 土 |
| ド、ト、つち |
| And when the "land" radical is a part of another kanji... |
| チ、ジ |
| 地 |
| for the kanji meaning "ground, earth" |
| ハン、さか |
| 坂 |
| for the "slope, incline, hill" kanji. And... |
| ジョウ、ば |
| 場 |
| for the "location, place" kanji. |
| Lesson Review |
| In this lesson, you learned about the "land" radical. |
| You also learned the kanji characters for "soil, earth, ground," "ground, earth" "slope, incline, hill" "location, place." in which this radical appears. |
| It's most commonly found in the left- or bottom-positions, making it appear like 地 and 在. |
| And it's written with three strokes, starting with a horizontal line, a vertical line going through the center, and finally a horizontal line at the bottom. |
| In the next lesson, you'll learn about another common radical used in some of the most common and basic kanji characters, the "house" radical. |
| See you in the next lesson. Bye! |
| Bye~! |
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