Learn the radical for "one," 一
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| Hi everyone. |
| Welcome to the Japanese Kanji video series. |
| In this lesson, you'll learn the "one" radical. |
| Take a look at these kanji characters. Can you guess what they mean? |
| (pause for 4 seconds) |
| By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to grasp the meaning behind these kanji characters. |
| 一、世、上、子 |
| First off, can you spot the radical that's common in all of these kanji characters? |
| (pause for 4 seconds) |
| It's this part here. It's a single horizontal stroke. |
| This particular radical is called... |
| 一 |
| いち、which literally means one. |
| The "one" radical is used in some of the most common kanji characters. Let's take a look at it in more detail. |
| Meaning |
| The "one" radical means exactly that, the number "one." |
| 一 |
| From left to right, the first kanji means "one," the second means "world" or "era," the third character means "above," and fourth character means "child." |
| 一、世、上、子 |
| As you can see in the first example, the "one" radical is also a kanji character on its own. |
| The second kanji is actually a reduction of another kanji meaning "leaf." The leaves and branches that grow on top of the tree are thought to represent a different "age" or "generation" of leaves and branches. |
| 枼 |
| The one radical here unifies the leaves and branches from a generation. The meaning of this kanji can be interpreted as "world" or "epoch." |
| The third kanji is an ideogram which shows the concept of "up" or "above" by having one horizontal line above another. |
| The fourth kanji is a pictogram. The top portion represents the baby's head, while the lower portion represents its body wrapped in a blanket. |
| The "one" radical here, signifies the baby's arms spreading, or growing into a child. So the meaning of this kanji is "child." |
| Common positions |
| The "one" radical appears in many different positions. It commonly sits in the crown position... |
| like in the kanji for "world" or "era." |
| 世 |
| Another common position is at the bottom in the "foot" position... |
| as seen in the kanji for "above." |
| 上 |
| Okay. Now let's learn how to write this radical. |
| Stroke Order |
| The "one" radical is incredibly simple to write. |
| It has only *one* stroke. |
| The concept of "one" is represented by a single stroke that goes from left to right. |
| It's important to note that this horizontal stroke, rises ever so slightly as it approaches the right side. |
| And that's it! You're done! |
| Common Readings |
| When the "one" radical is on its own, the kanji can be read as... |
| 一 |
| イチ、イツ for the on reading |
| and ひと、ひとつ for the kun reading |
| When the "one" radical is part of another kanji... |
| セ、セイ、よ |
| 世 |
| for the "world" or "epoch" kanji |
| ジョウ、うえ、のぼ |
| 上 |
| for the kanji meaning "above." And... |
| シ、こ |
| 子 |
| for the "child" kanji. |
| Lesson Review |
| In this lesson, you learned about the "one" radical. |
| The "one" radical looks like a single horizontal stroke and it signifies the concept of "one." |
| You also learned the kanji characters for "one," "world" or "epoch," "above," and "child," in which this radical appears. |
| It's most commonly found in the crown or bottom position. |
| And it's written with just one horizontal stroke going from left to right. |
| In the next lesson, you'll learn about another common radical used in some of the most common and basic kanji characters, the "word" radical. |
| See you in the next lesson. Bye! |
| Bye~! |
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