漢字Kanji · in Nature & Elements
時: time, hour
JLPT N510 strokesGrade 2Your ink: 白 Not met
日 carries the meaning · 寺 gives the sound
10 strokes
Oracle bone · Shang Small seal · Qin Today
Oracle bone and small seal: Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Three readings, and the words that use each
ジji · on'yomi · in compounds
- 時間じかんtime
- 時代じだいera
- 一時間いちじかんone hour
- 一時いちじone o'clock
- 同時どうじsimultaneous(ly)
- 当時とうじin those days, then, at that time
- 日時にちじdate and time
ときtoki · kun'yomi · on its own
- 時ときtime, occasion
- 時々ときどきsometimes
-どき-doki · kun'yomi
- 昼時ひるどきnoon
Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.
成り立ち
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Phono-semantic compound (形聲)日 sun; day (meaning) + 之 to go (sound)
The passing of time.
Source: Wiktionary, 時 (rev. 93737692), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“Sun + temple (寺) = in ancient times, the sun's position relative to the temple marked the measured hours of the day.”
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時 time · 日
vs特 special · 牛In ChineseSimplified 时 · traditional, as in Japanese · shí
Japan keeps the traditional form 時; mainland China simplifies it to 时.
- Simplified
- 时 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 時 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin shí 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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