汚
Dirty
| on’yomi | kun’yomi | Radicals |
|---|---|---|
| n/a | よご.す, きたな.い |  + 一 +  |
Meaning: Dirty
After the tsunami, the beggar was left on the ground. What does he look like? Mostly, he looks really, really dirty.
Imagine him getting up after being tossed around by the tsunami. He survived, and he’s so happy he comes up to you and hugs you. The first thing you notice is how incredibly dirty he is.
Reading: n/a
There’s no on’yomi reading. That means you’re stuck with kun’yomi, the best yomi. There’s a couple of kun’yomi readings here, so it might get a little confusing. Do your best and rely on your study decks to learn these things when you need to.
Vocabulary
The Japanese are pretty clean, so every little thing is 汚い.
a 汚い（きたない）＝ Dirty
- Meaning: Same as the kanji.
- Reading: Something is dirty… What is dirty? Your samurai sword. Your katana. “This is no katana anymore,” your master says. This is a ‘kitana,’ because it’s so dirty.” Your master loves the pun…
- Extra: Also can be written as 穢い … though we’ll just take things in stride here, okay?
a 汚す（よごす）＝ To Make Something Dirty
- Meaning: The verb form of this kanji. This is when you make something dirty (as in, you’re the one doing the action of making something dirty). Eww.
- Reading: The other kun’yomi reading. Who should go clean this mess you made? “You go” (よご) they say to you. You made the mess, after all.
a 汚れる（よごれる）＝ To Be Dirty / Polluted
- Meaning: Same as the kanji, verb form. This one you’re not the one directly doing the action of dirtying something, though. Something is just getting dirty and you’re not doing it.
- Reading: The same as the previous word. Know that one and you’ll know this one as well.