Page 57 - Japanese Character Writing for Dummies

This three-line kanji is relatively easy to memorize. On the other hand, you
should not confuse it with the kanji for “dog” 犬 inu, which has an extra dot
big in the upper-right corner, as you can see. ōkii means “big.” If you
combine this kanji with another kanji, the pronunciation often becomes dai

DAI, TAI/ō(kii) or tai as in daigaku (college, university) and taisetsu (some-
thing important). There are special cases like the word 大雨 ōame (heavy
rain), which you might experience during typhoon season. When you write
this kanji, remember to start from the horizontal line.

Radical: 大 Number of strokes: three

The adjective for “small” is chīsai. When it’s used in kanji com-
small are called shōgakusē (literally small students). There are
pounds, it is pronounced shō. For example, elementary school children

SHŌ/chī(sai), other pronunciations, such as in koishi (small rock, pebble) and 小
川 ogawa (creek, brook). When you practice drawing this kanji, you start
o, ko from the middle vertical line.

Radical: 小 Number of strokes: three

CHAPTER 3 105 Characters 51