不 — how to write the kanji for “negative”

不 means “negative”, “non-” and “bad”; it is a JLPT N4 kanji, taught in fourth grade in Japan. In newspapers it is the 101st most used kanji. It is also where hiragana ふ and katakana フ came from. Its parts: 一 (“one”, its radical), stroke 1; 丿 (“slash”), stroke 2; 丨 (“line”), stroke 3, each finished before the next. On its own it is the word fu, “un-; non-”. Its common words take the reading fu: 不況 (“(economic) depression”), 不安 (“anxiety”), 不明 (“unclear”) and 不満 (“dissatisfaction”). Chinese reads it bù, “no”, at HSK 1.

Strokes

4

JLPT

N4

Radical

一 (“one”)

On

フ, ブ