母
Mother
| on’yomi | kun’yomi | Radicals |
|---|---|---|
| n/i | はは | 母 |
Meaning: Meaning
The drawer radical looks like the mother kanji, though their meanings are different. Still, this isn’t too far of a stretch. Who’s the nice person that folds and puts your clothes in your drawer? That’s your mother.
On the other hand, you can imagine your mother yelling at you to put your clothes away in your drawers as well. Either way, just make sure your mother is involved in this mnemonic.
Reading: はは
We’re going to cheat and learn the kun’yomi reading for this one. Think about your mother. She’s never talked to you in your life… I’m talking ever. It’s insane. You’re all like “mom, can I have this toy?” And instead of talking, she just laughs and laughs and laughs at you in this weird laugh that sounds like “HA HA HA HA HA.”
Imagine her doing this to you on multiple occasions. Why does she not talk to you, but she talks to everyone else just fine? All she does is do that weird laugh at you. I hope you feel sad. It’ll help you to remember this kanji’s reading better.
Vocabulary
Learn the two words for this kanji. Mama mia!
a 母（はは）＝ Mother (casual)
- Meaning: Same as the kanji.
- Reading: Uses the kun’yomi reading that you just learned.
a お母さん（おかあさん）＝ Mother (formal)
- Meaning: This is the more formal version of mother. You’d tend to use this for other people’s mothers (because who needs to be formal with their own mom unless you want to be nice or something).
- Reading: Consider this reading as an exception and use your study deck to learn it up.