漢字Kanji · in Action & Movement
話: tale, talk
JLPT N513 strokesGrade 2Your ink: 白 Not met
言 carries the meaning · 舌 gives the sound
13 strokes
Three readings, and the words that use each
ワwa · on'yomi · in compounds
- 電話でんわtelephone
- 会話かいわconversation
- 話題わだいtopic
- 童話どうわfairy tale
はなすhanasu · kun'yomi · on its own
- 話すはなすspeak
- 話し方はなしかたway of talking
- 話し中はなしちゅうwhile talking, the line is busy
はなしhanashi · kun'yomi
- 話はなしstory, conversation
- 笑い話わらいばなしfunny story
- 昔話むかしばなしfolklore
Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.
成り立ち
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Phono-semantic compound (形聲)言 word (meaning) + 𠯑 (sound)
The right component is not related to 舌 (“tongue”).
Source: Wiktionary, 話 (rev. 92512667), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“Speech radical + tongue (舌) = the sound of words rolling off the moving tongue as someone tells a vivid story.”
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話 tale · 舌
vs詰 packed · 吉In ChineseSimplified 话 · traditional, as in Japanese · huà
Japan keeps the traditional form 話; mainland China simplifies it to 话.
- Simplified
- 话 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 話 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin huà 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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