Lesson 17 of 28
Kanji Unit 17 — the sun inside six characters
about 9 minutes
After this lesson you can
- Find 日 inside a character and read the character it helps build.
- Write the parts of the day and the seasons you already say.
Words this lesson teaches
- 早
- early
- 明
- bright; the next — 明日
- 映
- be reflected, be projected — 映画
- 春
- spring
- 昼
- midday, daytime
- 朝
- morning
- 夕
- evening
- 夜
- night
- 冬
- winter
What it explains
A radical, a component, and why the difference is small
A radical is the part a dictionary files the character under — one per character, chosen by tradition. A component is any part at all. 日 is the radical of 明 and merely a component of 春. For reading, the distinction does not matter: you want to see the parts, whichever name they go by. It matters only if you look characters up on paper, which almost nobody now does.
朝 昼 夜, and the meals attached to them
朝ご飯, 昼ご飯, 夕ご飯 — morning meal, midday meal, evening meal. The courses have written all three in kana since Foundations, and 飯 arrived in unit 15, so this unit finishes three words rather than starting them. 明日 is worth noting separately: bright day, meaning tomorrow, and read あした, which follows from neither character. Some words are just like that.
The scene itself is in the app.
Lesson one of this track is free to read in full. From lesson two on, the story, the audio and the review are part of a free account.