漢字Kanji · in Action & Movement
歩: walk, counter for steps
JLPT N48 strokesGrade 2Your ink: 白 Not met
止 carries the meaning · 少 is drawn in
8 strokes
Bronze · Western Zhou Today
Bronze: Wikimedia Commons, traced from Academia Sinica, CC0. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Five readings, and the words that use each
ホho · on'yomi · in compounds
- 歩道ほどうsidewalk
- 歩調ほちょうpace (walking)
- 歩行者ほこうしゃpedestrian
- 徒歩とほon foot [n.]
- 初歩しょほelementary
- 散歩するさんぽするtake a walk
- 進歩するしんぽするmake progress
ブbu · on'yomi
- 歩合ぶあいrate
フfu · on'yomi
- 歩ふpawn (in chess or shogi)
あるくaruku · kun'yomi · on its own
- 歩くあるくwalk
あゆむayumu · kun'yomi
- 歩むあゆむwalk
Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.
成り立ち
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Ideogrammic compound (會意)止 foot + 止 foot
Ideogrammic compound (會意): 止 (“foot”) + 止 (“foot”) reversed – one foot in front of the other. Unrelated to 少.
Source: Wiktionary, 步 (rev. 91726397), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“Stop (止) + a simplified foot (少 form) = the rhythmic cycle of stepping forward and stopping; the physical act of walking.”
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歩 walk · 止
vs抄 extract · 扌In ChineseA Japanese form · Chinese writes 步 · bù
歩 is a Japanese simplification. Chinese writes 步 in both simplified and traditional script.
- Simplified
- 步 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 步 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin bù 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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