子 — how to write the kanji for “child”

子 means “child”, “sign of the rat” and “11PM-1AM”; it is a JLPT N5 kanji, taught in first grade in Japan. In newspapers it is one of the hundred most used kanji (72nd). As one of the 214 traditional radicals it heads 33 kanji in KANJIDIC2. On its own it is the word ko, “child; kid”. Read shi, it forms 女子 (“woman”), 男子 (“boy”) and 原子力 (“atomic energy”); the native reading ko gives 子供 (“child”). Chinese reads it zǐ, “son”, at HSK 1.

Strokes

3

JLPT

N5

Radical

子 (“child”)

On

シ, ス, ツ

Kun

-こ, こ, ね