漢字Kanji · in Nature & Elements
私: private, I
Also: me
JLPT N47 strokesGrade 6Your ink: 白 Not met
禾 carries the meaning · 厶 gives the sound
7 strokes
Two readings, and the words that use each
シshi · on'yomi · in compounds
- 私鉄してつprivately-owned railway
- 私立しりつ/わたくしりつprivately-owned (institution)
- 私邸していprivate residence
- 私的してき
- 公私こうしpublic and private matters
- 私有しゆうprivate ownership
- 私学しがくprivate (non-governmental) school (college…
わたしwatashi · kun'yomi · on its own
- 私わたし/わたくしI
Also read わたくし, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0 · JMdict, EDRDG, CC BY-SA 4.0.
成り立ち
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Phono-semantic compound (形聲)禾 (meaning) + 厶 private (sound)
厶 originally referred to this word, 禾 was added later.
Source: Wiktionary, 私 (rev. 93450294), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“Grain (禾) + self/private (ム). Originally referred to one's "private" stash of "grain" that was kept for the self, eventually becoming the word for "I."”
繋がり
Connections
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
私 takes the 厶 family's reading, シ (shi).
Easy to confuse
The difference, side by side私 private · 禾 + 厶
vs松 pine tree · 木 + 公In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · sī
Same form: 私 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).
- Simplified
- 私 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 私 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin sī most common reading
Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.
One click tells us. No sign-up.