漢字Kanji · in Human Body & People
健: healthy, health
Also: strength, persistence
JLPT N111 strokesGrade 4Your ink: 白 Not met
亻 carries the meaning · 建 gives the sound
11 strokes
Two readings, and the words that use each
ケンken · on'yomi · in compounds
- 健康けんこうhealth
- 健康保険けんこうほけんhealth insurance
- 健全なけんぜんなhealthy, sound, wholesome
- 穏健なおんけんなquiet, dependable, moderate
- 健康的なけんこうてきなhygienic, healthful, sanitary
すこやかsukoyaka · kun'yomi · on its own
- 健やかなすこやかなhealthy
Special readingsThese words are read as a whole, not from the readings above.
- 健気なけなげなheroic, brave, admirable
Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.
成り立ち
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Phono-semantic compound (形聲)人 person, as 亻 (meaning) + 建 (sound)
Source: Wiktionary, 健 (rev. 92983679), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“See the person standing tall, ready to interact with the world! When this radical appears on the left, it signals that the kanji describes a human quality, a social relationship, or an action that people perform.”
繋がり
Connections
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
Easy to confuse
The difference, side by side健 healthy · 亻 + 建
vs律 rhythm · 彳 + 聿In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · jiàn
Same form: 健 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).
- Simplified
- 健 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 健 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin jiàn most common reading
Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.
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