Kanji Units
Lesson 4 of 12
Kanji Unit 4 — clocks, weeks and the sun inside them
about 9 minutes
After this lesson you can
- Read a time and a date written in kanji.
- Spot 日 inside a character you have not been taught.
Words this lesson teaches
- 時
- hour, time
- 間
- interval, between
- 午
- noon
- 前
- before; in front of
- 後
- after; behind
- 今
- now, this
- 毎
- every
- 週
- week
- 曜
- day of the week
- 年
- year
- 先
- previous; ahead
What it explains
午前 and 午後 are a.m. and p.m., spelled out
午 alone is rare; you will almost always meet it in these two compounds. 前 and 後 are worth more than the pair, though — they also mean in front of and behind in space, so 駅の前 is in front of the station. One character doing time and place at once is normal in Japanese and worth expecting rather than being surprised by.
The radical earning its keep
時, 間, 曜 and 日 all carry the 日 from last unit. Not one of them is about the sun — they are about time — and that is exactly what the radical is telling you, because time in Japanese is measured in days. You were not taught 間 as a picture; you were handed a part you already knew and a meaning that follows from it. Every unit after this one works the same way.