Japanese Kanji Made Easy. Michael L. Kluemper

      N

      ン is like the crisscross rope pattern of an ancient JomoN period pot.

      Kana Notes

      • The hiragana う and katakana ウ, when following kana that end in “o” or “u” sounds, serve to lengthen the preceding vowel. In katakana, the symbol ー is used to lengthen any vowel that precedes it.

      • A small っ (hiragana) or ッ (katakana) serves to double the consonant that follows.

      • The symbol" changes unvoiced sounds to voiced sounds: k becomes g; s becomes z; t becomes d; and h becomes b.

      • The symbol^。 changes ha, hi, fu, he, and ho sounds to pa, pi, pu, pe, and po.

      A GUIDE TO THE ILLUSTRATIONS

      1. The kanji.

      2. English meanings of the kanji.

      3. The number of pen strokes needed to write the kanji.

      4. The entry number for the kanji in The New Nelson Japanese-English Character Dictionary.

      5. Some common readings of the kanji in Japanese. Those readers wishing to know which readings are of Chinese origin (on-yomi), and which are of Japanese origin (kun-yomi) should refer to a dictionary such as The New Nelson.

      6. Sample vocabulary words. The pronunciation is given in small capitals over the sample word. A macron over a vowel (as in the one on the letter U of the word SŪGAKU in the above example) indicates that the vowel sound is long. The _{that accompanies this book gives native-speaker pronunciation of the readings and the vocabulary words.}

      7. The meaning of the kanji is written in capitals.

      8. Many kanji contain elements that can be stand-alone kanji, or elements that are common radicals closely associated with a particular meaning. When the story that accompanies each illustration allows, these kanji and radicals are highlighted in brackets.

      CHAPTER 1

      NUMBERS and COLORS

数	number, count, math	13 strokes NN2353

      kazo(eru), kazu, sū

SŪ 数

GAKU 学

mathematics

KAZO 数

E え

RU る

to count

      

Grains of rice (米) were COUNTED by a woman (女) at a folding table.

色	color	6 strokes NN4956

      iro, shiki

KI 黄

IRO 色

yellow

KE 景

SHIKI 色

scenery

      

A snake has patterns of COLOR and a barbed tongue.

      Numbers 数

一	one	1 stroke NN0001

      hito(tsu), ichi

ICHI 一

one

HITO 一

TSU つ

one [thing]

      

ONE stroke for ONE.

二	two	2 strokes NN0072

      futa(tsu), ni

NI 二

two

FUTA 二

TSU つ

two [things]

      

TWO strokes for TWO.

三	three	3 strokes NN0008

      mi(tsu), san

SAN 三

three

MI 三

TSU つ

three [things]

      

THREE strokes for THREE.

四	four	5 strokes NN0938

      yo(tsu), yon, shi

YON 四

four

YO 四

TSU つ

four [things]

      

four [things]

五	five	4 strokes NN0077

      itsu(tsu), go

GO 五

five

ITSU 五

TSU つ

five [things]

      

FIVE is only a four-stroke kanji, but there are FIVE segments.

六	six	4 stroke NN0371

      mu(tsu), roku

ROKU 六

six

MU 六

TSU つ

six [thing]

      

Two strokes away from eight (八), you have SIX.

八	eight	2 stroke NN0369