元 — how to write the kanji for “beginning”

元 means “beginning”, “former time” and “origin”; it is a JLPT N4 kanji, taught in second grade in Japan. In newspapers it is the 192nd most used kanji. Its parts sit stacked: 二 (“two”), strokes 1–2; 儿 (“legs”, its radical), strokes 3–4, each finished before the next. With 4 strokes it is among the simplest kanji of N4. On its own it is the word moto, “origin; source”. Read gen, it forms 元首 (“sovereign”), 元気 (“lively”) and 還元 (“restoration”); the native reading moto gives 地元 (“home area”) and 足元 (“at one's feet”). Chinese reads it yuán, “currency unit”, at HSK 1.

Strokes

4

JLPT

N4

Radical

儿 (“legs”)

On

ゲン, ガン

Kun

もと