川
River
| on’yomi | kun’yomi | Radicals |
|---|---|---|
| せん | かわ | 川 |
Meaning: River
The river radical and the river kanji are the same as each other!
So, if you know the radical you know the kanji as well.
Reading: n/i
The on’yomi reading for 川 exists, but it doesn’t show up enough to learn it right now. You’ll see it from time to time as you get pretty advanced, but by then you’ll be so good at learning about this sort of thing it won’t matter. Why waste brain energy on a reading you won’t use for a long time, right? Let’s stick with the kun’yomi, which can be learned via the vocab.
Vocabulary
This has a lot of cool vocab in terms of getting to use a lot of different readings and kanji you’ve already learned (the puzzle pieces are starting to fall together now!).
a 川（かわ）＝ River
- Meaning: The meaning is the same as the kanji.
- Reading: The reading is the kun’yomi reading (because it’s a vocab consisting of only the kanji, and nothing else). As long as you know this means “river” you can think about something walking around in a river… how about a “cow” (かわ)? Also imagine yourself swimming in a river, only to find out you’re downstream of these cows… you know what cows do in rivers, don’t you?
a 川下（かわしも）＝ Downriver
- Combo: 川 (river) + 下 (under, below)
- Meaning: The down part of the river is “downriver.” The ordering of the kanji is “river down” but you can get the picture, I bet.
- Reading: The reading for this kanji is actually quite strange. The 川 is kun’yomi (which isn’t too bad) and 下 is an exceptional reading you won’t see too often (しも). I’d recommend remembering the meaning of this vocab then learning the reading of it straight up.
a 川口（かわぐち）＝ River Mouth
- Combo: 川 (river) + 口 (mouth)
- Meaning: The mouth of a river is a “River Mouth.”
- Reading: Another strange reading in that both kanji use their kun’yomi readings. 川, you’ll want to remember, tends to do this. The 口 is pronounced ぐち, which is a case of “Sequential Voicing.”