Lesson 7 of 12
Kanji Unit 7 — mountains, rivers and weather
about 7 minutes
After this lesson you can
- Read 天気 and the words for weather on a forecast.
- Explain what a pictograph is, using two of these characters.
Words this lesson teaches
- 山
- mountain
- 川
- river
- 天
- heaven, sky
- 気
- air, spirit, feeling
- 雨
- rain
- 空
- sky; empty
- 花
- flower
What it explains
Pictographs are the minority, and that is the point
Roughly a tenth of all kanji are pictures of things. The rest are built from parts, usually one hinting at the meaning and one at the sound. So enjoy 山 and 川 — and do not expect the trick to keep working, because unit 8 onwards is mostly assembly. The reason pictographs matter is not that you can guess them; it is that they are the parts everything else is assembled from.
気 is everywhere and means almost nothing on its own
天気 is weather, 元気 is health and good spirits, 電気 is electricity. The thread is something invisible that moves — air, energy, mood. You will not find a clean English word for it and you do not need one; recognise the character and let the compound tell you what it is doing. This is the normal condition of a common kanji and it is better met early than argued with.