Lesson 3 of 12
Kanji Unit 3 — the seven days are seven radicals
about 9 minutes
After this lesson you can
- Read the seven days of the week on a sign or a schedule.
- Recognise 日 and 木 when they appear inside other characters.
Words this lesson teaches
- 月
- moon; month; Monday
- 火
- fire; Tuesday
- 水
- water; Wednesday
- 木
- tree, wood; Thursday
- 金
- gold, money; Friday
- 土
- earth, soil; Saturday
- 日
- sun, day; Sunday
What it explains
曜日 is the part that means 'day of the week'
月 on its own is the moon, or a month. 月曜日 is Monday. The two characters 曜日 are doing the work of turning a sky-object into a weekday, and they never change, so learning seven days is really learning seven characters plus one fixed ending. On a shop sign the ending is often dropped — 木 やすみ means closed Thursdays — because the context has already told you it is a day.
日 and 木 are the two that pay off most
Of the seven, two are radicals you will meet constantly. 日 marks characters to do with the sun, with light and with time — 時, 明, 曜, 早. 木 marks characters to do with trees and wood, and with things made of wood: 本, 校, 林. When you meet an unfamiliar character later and can see a 日 down one side, you already know something true about it before anyone tells you.