下 — how to write the kanji for “below”

下 means “below”, “down” and “descend”; it is a JLPT N5 kanji, taught in first grade in Japan. In newspapers it is one of the hundred most used kanji (97th). KANJIDIC2 gives it 2 on readings and 12 kun readings, so the word decides how you say it. Its parts: 一 (“one”, its radical), stroke 1; 卜 (“divination”), strokes 2–3, each finished before the next. On its own it is the word shita, “below; down”. Its common words take the reading ka: 下院 (“lower house”), 低下 (“fall”), 地下 (“underground”) and 以下 (“not exceeding ...”). Chinese reads it xià, “down”, at HSK 1.

Strokes

3

JLPT

N5

Radical

一 (“one”)

On

カ, ゲ

Kun

した, さ·げる, くだ·さる