Learn the radical for "day," 日
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| Hi everyone. |
| Welcome to the Japanese Kanji video series. |
| In this lesson, you'll learn the "day" 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. |
| 日、明、時、映、 |
| 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. |
| This particular radical is called... |
| 日 |
| ひ or ひへん |
| The "day" radical is used in some of the most common kanji characters. Let's take a look at it in more detail. |
| Meaning |
| The "day" radical is a kanji character on its own. It's a pictogram of the sun, and it means "sun" or "day." |
| 日 |
| From left to right, the first kanji means "sun" or "day," the second means "bright," the third character means "time," and fourth character means "projection" or "reflection." |
| 日、明、時、映、 |
| The first kanji is actually one of two kanji characters used to write "Japan." |
| 日本 |
| As we mentioned before, the first kanji means "sun," and the second character means "root." Since Japan is to the east of China, and the sun rises from the east, Japan is written as "the land where the sun originates..." |
| or more commonly, "the land of the rising sun." |
| The second kanji has the "day" radical on the left, and this other character on the right which means "moon." The sun and moon together is depicting daybreak, where the sky changes rapidly from night into day. |
| 明 |
| And so the meaning of this character is "bright." |
| The next kanji has the "day" radical on the left, and this other character on the right which means "temple." In historic times, the time of day was announced by chiming a large bell at the temple. |
| So "day" and "temple" means "time." |
| 時 |
| The third kanji has the "day" radical on the left again, and this other character meaning "the center" or "middle" of a person's body. The character on the right is actually a pictograph of a man. |
| 映 |
| A man standing next to the sun alludes to the idea of something being "reflected" or "projected," which is the meaning of this kanji. |
| OK. Let's move on! |
| Common positions |
| The "day" radical will usually appear in the left position. |
| pause 2 seconds |
| As seen in the original examples for "bright," "time," and "reflect" or "project." |
| pause 2 seconds |
| When the "day" radical is part of another kanji character, it shrinks in size. |
| pause 2 seconds |
| Okay. Now let's learn how to write this radical. |
| Stroke Order |
| The "day" radical is written in four strokes. |
| The first stroke is a vertical stroke that starts on the left, and goes from top to bottom. |
| The second stroke is a tall right hand corner. It connects with the first stroke and goes left to right, bends, and then goes straight down. |
| The third stroke is a horizontal stroke that occurs at the halfway point, and goes left to right. |
| The fourth and final stroke is a horizontal stroke, closing out the box. |
| And that's it! You're done! |
| Common Readings |
| When the "day" radical is a kanji on its own. It can be read as... |
| 日 |
| ニチ、ジツ for the "on" reading |
| and ひ、か for the "kun" reading |
| And when the "day" radical is part of another kanji... |
| メイ、あ、あか |
| 明 |
| for the "bright" kanji. |
| ジ、とき |
| 時 |
| for the "time" kanji. And... |
| エイ、うつ |
| 映 |
| for the "reflect" or "project" kanji. |
| Lesson Review |
| In this lesson, you learned about the "day" radical. |
| The "day" radical looks like *this*, and it represents the "sun" or "day." |
| You also learned the kanji characters for "sun" or "day," "bright," "time," and "reflect" or "project," in which this radical appears. |
| It usually appears in the left position. |
| And it's written with four strokes: one vertical, a right hand corner stroke, and two horizontal strokes. |
| In the next lesson, you'll learn about another common radical used in some of the most common and basic kanji characters, the "movement" radical. |
| See you in the next lesson. Bye! |
| Bye~! |
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