手
Hand
| on’yomi | kun’yomi | Radicals |
|---|---|---|
| しゅ | て | 手 |
Meaning: Hand
The hand radical and the hand kanji are identical in looks and meaning! That should make things easy!
Make sure you’re studying your radicals. It won’t be forever that radicals and kanji overlap so nicely like this!
Reading: しゅ
Look at your lovely hands. They’re great! You really want to protect them, they’re so great. Gloves aren’t good enough. Not strong. You have an idea. You put a shoe on each hand, and now they’re protected from the scary outside world.
Vocabulary
This kanji shows up in a lot of words. Believe it or not, I really narrowed the list down to “useful” and “common” words, even though there are so many of them. So, it’ll seem like a lot, but it’s a lot less than you’d think!
a 手（て）＝ Hand
- Meaning: The meaning is the same as the kanji.
- Reading: The reading is the kun’yomi, just like *most* vocab words that are alone with nothing attached.
a 下手（へた）＝ Unskillful
- Combo: 下 (down) + 手 (hand)
- Meaning: The meaning, in terms of using this combo of kanji, doesn’t make as sense as it could, but think of it this way. Put your hand out – that’s the average point on this imaginary scale you’re creating. Above it is above average skill. Below that (like this vocab) is below average skillful… aka, “Unskillful.”
- Reading: The reading for this one is just a mess of exceptions, so you have to learn the reading straight up, I’m afraid.
a 上手（じょうず）＝ Good at
- Combo: 上 (up/above) + 手 (hand)
- Meaning: See “unskillful” and think the opposite!
- Reading: The reading is full of exceptions, so you’ll have to learn this one straight up. It’s a useful word, though, so you’ll see it a lot.