Free Kanji Course – lesson four

Welcome to the fourth lesson of our free online kanji course! With the help of carefully selected teaching materials that are freely available online, we are going to remember all the kanji you need for JLPT level 5. This week, we will learn 雨 , 大 , 本 , 今 , 何 , 母 , 父 , 男 , 女 , and 子 .

Review

Let’s review all the kanji from the first three lessons! Do you still remember all of them?

Lesson 1:  一, 二, 三 , 四 , 五 , 六 , 七 , 八 , 九 , 十 , 百 , 千 , 万 , and 円 .
Lesson 2: 日、月、火、水、木、金、土、川、and 田 .
Lesson 3: 人, 私,  ,  , 左 , 右 , 中, and 山 .

Writing them really helps with remembering, so here is some nice writing inspiration:

…and then onto our next set of kanji! First one will be “ame” – 雨 .

雨 (あめ) means “rain”. This is the stroke order:

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The stroke order for 雨

雨 is a beautiful kanji, isn’t it? ♥ If you like, you can learn about its origins in the video below:

大 (おお.きい) means “big” or “large”. As a radical, 大 is also used in other kanji such as 天 (sky) and 夫 (husband). This is the stroke order:

File:大-bw.png - 维基词典,自由的多语言词典
The stroke order of 大

Can you combine the two characters above to write “heavy rain”…? ^_^

本 means ホン  “book” or  もと “origin”. This is the stroke order:

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The stroke order for 本

今 (いま) means “now” and “present”. This is the stroke order:

kanji
The stroke order for 今

何 (なに) means “what”. Maybe you already learned the phrase: “nani desu ka?” – well, after today, you can also write it: 何ですか . The stroke order is like this:

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The stroke order of 何

母 (はは) means “mother”. Be careful with the pronunciation, though, using it to describe someone the speaker knows personally is often considered lacking respect. More polite forms like お母さん (okāsan) are preferred. ^_^ This is the stroke order:

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The stroke order for 母

父 (ちち) means “father”. Just like with 母 , be careful about the reading – if you like to describe someone the speaker knows personally, “chichi” is often considered lacking respect, and more polite forms like おとうさん (otōsan) are preferred. This is the stroke order:

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The stroke order for 父 – image courtesy of Tofugu.

A bit more about the history of the character 父 is explained in the video below:

男 (おとこ) means “male”, “son” or “man/men”. This is the stroke order:

Stroke order for 男
The stroke order for 男

女 (おんな) means “woman/women” or “daughter”. It’s also a radical (feminine). This is the stroke order:

File:女-bw.png - 维基词典,自由的多语言词典
The stroke order for 女 .

Practise with 男 and 女 :

子 (こ) means “child” and can also be used to say to your girlfriend (similar to the English “baby”). This is the stroke order:

File:子-bw.png - 维基词典,自由的多语言词典
The stroke order for 子 .

…and it’s a wrap! Now, you have learned 雨 , 大 , 本 , 今 , 何 , 母 , 父 , 男 , 女 , and 子 . How do you find this kanji? Which ones are difficult for you? And do you have any questions? Discuss it in our Facebook group. Native speakers as well as professional Japanese teachers are happy to help you in you learning journey.

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