月
Moon
| on’yomi | kun’yomi | Radicals |
|---|---|---|
| げつ, がつ | つき | 月 |
Meaning: Moon
The moon kanji is made up of the moon radical.
This should be EZPZ as long as you know the radicals already!
Reading: げつ, がつ
Since げつ and がつ are quite similar, we’ll use one mnemonic to cover both of them. I expect your experience learning Japanese throughout the future will help you to memorize and differentiate between the two. When the moon goes down and goes away, everyone in the world gets (げつ) up, because that means it’s going to be daytime soon!
This one might not be as memorable at first, but if you think of the moon, and think about what people do when the moon is up, you’ll come to sleeping. Then naturally you can think about what happens when the moon goes down… people gets up!
Vocabulary
It’s vocabulary time! Be sure you’re learning the meanings before moving on (and the readings as much as you can).
a 月（つき）＝ moon
- Meaning: The meaning is the same as the kanji.
- Reading: The reading is the kun’yomi reading. Imagine the moon up there in the sky, and you have to open it up. It requires two keys (つき), with them both turned at the same time.
a 十月（じゅうがつ）＝ tenth month (i.e. October)
- Combo: 十 (ten) + 月 (month)
- Meaning: Ten months have gone by this year, what month is it now? October.
- Reading: The readings consist of the two on’yomi readings for these kanji put together.
Notes:
A lot of 月 vocab will actually have to do with time, usually on a monthly basis. When you see this kanji, it’s most likely going to have something to do with that (at least when it comes to daily / common usage).