Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in States & Attributes

甘: sweet, coax

Also: pamper, be content, sugary

JLPT N25 strokesSecondary schoolYour ink: 白 Not met
  • 廿(form)
5 strokes
  • Oracle bone · Shang
  • Bronze · Western Zhou
  • Small seal · Qin
  • Today

Oracle bone and small seal: Academia Sinica 小學堂, CC0. Bronze: Wikimedia Commons, traced from Academia Sinica, CC0. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Four readings, and the words that use each

カンkan · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 甘味料かんみりょうsweeteners, sweetening materials,
  • 甘美なかんびなsweet

あまいamai · kun'yomi · on its own

  • 甘いあまいsweet, not strict
  • 甘んじるあまんじるput up with, submit to

あまえるamaeru · kun'yomi

  • 甘えるあまえるpresume goodwill

あまやかすamayakasu · kun'yomi

  • 甘やかすあまやかすpamper, spoil

Also read うまい, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.

Learn it 4 steps
Print sheet Present
成り立ち

Where it comes from

Origin · sourced

Ideogram (指事)

Something sweet in an open mouth; the original drawing is 𠁿. Original form of 含.

Source: Wiktionary, 甘 (rev. 93443723), CC BY-SA 4.0

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“The base kanji representing the taste of sugar or the quality of being indulgent (as in "spoiling" someone).”
From the 甘 sweet story
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
廿

Also built on 廿

甘 gives its sound to

Sound parts: KanjiVG.

Also read カン

51 kanji share this on'yomiAll 51

Easy to confuse

The difference, side by side
甘 sweet
vs世 generation
Same parts, arranged differently.
In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · gān

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

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

Pinyin gān 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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