丸
Circle
| on’yomi | kun’yomi | Radicals |
|---|---|---|
| n/i | まる | 九 + 丶 |
Meaning: Circle
What’s something with nine sides? It’s almost a circle.
It’s not quite a circle though. You just need to add a drop of liquid to the edges to smooth it out to become a full circle
Reading: n/i
The on’yomi reading for this kanji is not important enough to learn right now. Instead, you’ll learn the kun’yomi reading via the vocab that uses this kanji.
Vocabulary
Learn the two vocab words before moving on – focus especially on the meanings for now, though.
a 丸（まる）＝ Circle
- Meaning: It’s the same as the kanji
- Reading: If you know this means circle, then you can think of something round. Do you know who’s named “Round-chan”? The world-famous cat who jumps in boxes, Maru-chan. I think if you watch enough Maru-chan videos you’ll come to remember that 丸 = round = まる.
a 丸い（まるい）＝ Round, Circular
- Meaning: The い on the end signifies that it’s an adjective (an い-adjective, specifically). You don’t necessarily know what this is, yet, but just know that when you see the little い on the end of まる, it changes the meaning to something slightly different (round, circular).
- Reading: As long as you know the reading for 丸, you can figure out the reading for 丸い.