漢字Kanji · in Action & Movement
建: build
- 聿(form)
- 廴long stride(meaning)
廴 carries the meaning · 聿 is drawn in
Oracle bone · Shang Today
Oracle bone: Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Five readings, and the words that use each
ケンken · on'yomi · in compounds
- 建築けんちくarchitecture
- 建設するけんせつするconstruct
- 再建するさいけんするrebuild
コンkon · on'yomi
- 建立するこんりゅうするerect (building) [v.t.]
たてるtateru · kun'yomi · on its own
- 建てるたてるbuild [v.t.]
- 建物たてものbuilding
- 建前たてまえpublic position
-だて-date · kun'yomi
- 二階建てにかいだてtwo-storied building
たつtatsu · kun'yomi
- 建つたつbe built [v.i.]
Also read たて, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Ideogrammic compound (會意)廴 + 聿
Originally, a pictogram (象形) – a hand (又) planting a pole (𰀁) into a base. The left component was originally written as ∟.
Source: Wiktionary, 建 (rev. 92990240), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“Stride radical + brush/writing (聿) = 'stretching' out the large-scale plans and 'writing' them into physical reality; the act of building a structure.”
Connections
Also built on 聿
Easy to confuse
The difference, side by sideIn ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · jiàn
Same form: 建 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).
- Simplified
- 建 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 建 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.