灰
Ashes
| on’yomi | kun’yomi | Radicals |
|---|---|---|
| n/i | はい | 厂 + 火 |
Meaning: Ashes
There’s a cliff surrounding the fire. The fire builds up, though, and pressure builds up. Eventually, this fire will explode. What will happen to the cliff when it does? It will turn to ashes, spewing the world and covering everything.
Be sure to imagine this happening. See the ash cloud flying through the sky, falling toward you. When it hits you, it becomes hard to breathe. You’re coughing for air, and covering your mouth. Your eyes are watering. Ashes are just as scary as fire, you find out.
Reading: n/i
No on’yomi reading to learn – that’s unfortunate. On’yomi are pretty great. Still, we’ll treat the kun’yomi kind of like the on’yomi, since it’ll behave more like an on’yomi in this case.
Vocabulary
Learn the meanings of these words, and the readings if you can.
a 灰（はい）＝ Ashes
- Meaning: Same as the kanji
- Reading: This is the same as “yes” (はい!). You can think of someone calling, asking of this ASHES are coming. “Are they coming?” “はい… くずぞ…” Then you get hit with the ash cloud. Ruh roh. Have you noticed there’s more and more words you can learn at the ends of these kanji chapters recently?
a 灰皿（はいざら）＝ Ash Tray
- Combo: 灰 (ashes) + 皿 (plate)
- Meaning: A plate for ashes is an ash tray (like, for cigarettes or cigars or something)
- Reading: The kun’yomi readings of both – having one kun’yomi-heavy kanji tends to do that to other kanji…
a 灰色（はいいろ）＝ Grey
- Combo: 灰 (ashes ) + 色 (color)
- Meaning: The color of ash is what? It’s grey.
- Reading: The reading of the kanji is the kun’yomi put together. Once again, the kun’yomi-heavy 灰 is making other things kun’yomi as well. Besides, it’s kind of like putting two words together, which also tends to make kanji kun’yomi.