Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Time & Sequence

夜: night, evening

JLPT N48 strokesGrade 2Your ink: 白 Not met

夕 carries the meaning · 亠, 亻 and 亦 give the sound

8 strokes

Three readings, and the words that use each

ヤya · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 今夜こんやtonight
  • 深夜しんやmidnight
  • 夜間やかんnighttime
  • 徹夜するてつやするstay up all night

よyo · kun'yomi · on its own

  • 夜更かしするよふかしするstay up late
  • 夜中よなかlate at night
  • 夜明けよあけdawn
  • 夜空よぞらnight sky
  • 月夜つきよmoonlit night

よるyoru · kun'yomi

  • 夜よるnight

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)亦 (sound) + 夕 moon (meaning)

夕 may also serve as another phonetic component.

Source: Wiktionary, 夜 (rev. 92493252), CC BY-SA 4.0

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“Evening (夕) + person + cover variant. The time when a "person" is under the "cover" of the "evening" sky—the standard word for the "night."”
From the 夕 evening story
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
亠

Also built on lid (亠)

All 24
亻

Also built on person (亻)

All 103
夕

Also built on evening (夕)

All 6
亦

Also built on also (亦)

The 亦 sound family doesn't share one reading.

夜 gives its sound to

Sound parts: KanjiVG.

Also read ヤ

6 kanji share this on'yomi
In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · yè

Same form: 夜 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).

Simplified
夜 mainland China, Singapore
Traditional
夜 Taiwan, Hong Kong

Pinyin yè 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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