Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Structures & Home

問: question, ask

Also: problem

JLPT N411 strokesGrade 3Your ink: 白 Not met

口 carries the meaning · 門 gives the sound

11 strokes
  • Small seal · Qin
  • Today

Small seal: Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Four readings, and the words that use each

モンmon · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 質問するしつもんするinquire
  • 訪問するほうもんするvisit
  • 問題もんだいproblem, question

とうtou · kun'yomi · on its own

  • 問うとうask a question

といtoi · kun'yomi

  • 問い合わせるといあわせるseek information, inquire

とんton · kun'yomi

  • 問屋とんやwholesale store

Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.

Learn it 4 steps
Print sheet Present
成り立ち

Where it comes from

Origin · sourced

Phono-semantic compound (形聲)門 (sound) + 口 (meaning)

Source: Wiktionary, 問 (rev. 88612613), CC BY-SA 4.0

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“Gate (門) + mouth = imagine standing at a great gate and calling out a question to someone inside.”
From the 口 mouth story
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
門

Also built on gate (門)

All 11

問 takes the 門 family's reading, モン (mon).

口

Also built on mouth (口)

All 108

Also read モン

4 kanji share this on'yomi

Easy to confuse

The difference, side by side
問 question · 口
vs閉 closed · 才
問 has 口 where 閉 has 才.
In ChineseSimplified 问 · traditional, as in Japanese · wèn

Japan keeps the traditional form 問; mainland China simplifies it to 问.

Simplified
问 mainland China, Singapore
Traditional
問 Taiwan, Hong Kong

Pinyin wèn 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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