漢字Kanji · in Action & Movement
故: happenstance, especially
Also: intentionally, reason, cause, circumstances, the late, therefore, consequently
JLPT N19 strokesGrade 5Your ink: 白 Not met
攵 carries the meaning · 古 gives the sound
9 strokes
Bronze · Western Zhou Today
Bronze: Wikimedia Commons, traced from Academia Sinica, CC0. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Two readings, and the words that use each
コko · on'yomi · in compounds
- 故郷こきょうhome town
- 故国ここくone's native land
- 故人こじんthe deceased
- 故田中氏こたなかしthe late Mr. Tanaka
- 事故じこaccident
- 故意にこいにpurposefully
- 故障するこしょうするbreak down, malfunction [v.i.]
ゆえyue · kun'yomi · on its own
- 故ゆえreason [n.]
Also read ふるい, もと, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.
成り立ち
Where it comes from
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“Whack! A hand with a stick is ready to take command.”
繋がり
Connections
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
古
Also built on old (古)
故 takes the 古 family's reading, コ (ko).
Easy to confuse
The difference, side by side故 happenstance · 攵
vs克 overcome · 兄In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · gù
Same form: 故 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).
- Simplified
- 故 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 故 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin gù 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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