中 — how to write the kanji for “in”

中 means “in”, “inside” and “middle”; it is a JLPT N5 kanji, taught in first grade in Japan. In newspapers it is one of the hundred most used kanji (11th). KANJIDIC2 gives it 1 on reading and 3 kun readings, so the word decides how you say it. Its parts: 口 (“mouth”), strokes 1–3; 丨 (“line”, its radical), stroke 4, each finished before the next. On its own it is the word naka, “inside; interior”. Its common words take the reading chuu: 中国 (“China”), 中央 (“centre”), 中心 (“center”) and 中東 (“Middle East”). Chinese reads it zhōng, “within”, at HSK 1.

Strokes

4

JLPT

N5

Radical

丨 (“line”)

On

チュウ

Kun

なか, うち, あた·る