Kanji 年 — "Year"
Here is what 年 means, how it is read, what it is built from, and a story that makes "Year" stick.
How it is read
ねん
the reading borrowed from Chinese — usually appears in compound words
とし
the native Japanese reading — usually appears when the kanji stands alone
How to remember it
Kanji are not random strokes. Learn the parts and the whole becomes easy. Put the parts together into one picture. The stranger it is, the harder it is to forget.
The Noon Gun is a cannon fired at 12:00 every day — it's been a tradition for over a Year!
- 午 Noon
It looks very similar to cow (牛), but it's not, because Noon is the time when cows get slaughtered.
- 𠂉 Gun
A variant form of 人 but its shape looks like a Gun, so it's called Gun.
Words that use 年
12 of 43 words in the app that contain this kanji — the most common ones first.
- 年 とし year, age
- 今年 ことし this year
- 年間 ねんかん year, yearly
- 何年 なんねん what year
- 半年 はんとし half a year
- 少年 しょうねん boys, juveniles
- 去年 きょねん last year
- 来年 らいねん next year
- 年齢 ねんれい age, years
- 毎年 まいとし every year
- 青年 せいねん youth, young man
- 年代 ねんだい age, era, period
Want 年 to still be there next month?
Reading it once is not remembering it. The app brings each kanji back right before you would have forgotten it.
