Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Action & Movement

返: return, answer

Also: fade, repay

JLPT N37 strokesGrade 3Your ink: 白 Not met

⻌ carries the meaning · 反 gives the sound

7 strokes
  • Bronze · Warring States
  • Small seal · Qin
  • Today

Bronze and small seal: Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Three readings, and the words that use each

ヘンhen · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 返事するへんじするreply
  • 返品するへんぴんするreturn goods
  • 返却するへんきゃくするreturn something
  • 返送するへんそうするsend back
  • 返答するへんとうするreply

かえすkaesu · kun'yomi · on its own

  • 返すかえすreturn something

かえるkaeru · kun'yomi

  • 生き返るいきかえるrevive

Also read -かえす, -かえる, 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

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“This swooping radical is the winding road you walk upon! It curves under the rest of the kanji like a path being carved through a landscape.”
More in the 辶 road story
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
反

Also built on anti- (反)

The 反 family reads ハン (han); 返 is read ヘン.

⻌

Also built on road (⻌)

All 54

Also read ヘン

7 kanji share this on'yomi

Easy to confuse

The difference, side by side
返 return · ⻌
vs坂 slope · 土
返 has ⻌ where 坂 has 土.
In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · fǎn

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

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

Pinyin fǎn 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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