午 — how to write the kanji for “noon”
午 means “noon”, “sign of the horse” and “11AM-1PM”; it is a JLPT N5 kanji, taught in second grade in Japan. In newspapers it is the 154th most used kanji. It starts with the left-falling sweep, before the horizontal that crosses it. On its own it is the word uma, “the Horse (seventh sign of the Chinese zodiac)…”. Its common words take the reading go: 午前 (“morning”), 午後 (“afternoon”), 正午 (“noon”) and 午前中 (“in the morning”). Chinese reads it wǔ, “7th earthly branch”, at HSK 1.
- Strokes
- 4
- JLPT
- N5
- Radical
- 十 (“ten”)
- On
- ゴ
- Kun
- うま
Stroke by stroke
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
Its parts: 丿 (“slash”), stroke 1; 干 (“dry”), stroke 2; 十 (“ten”, its radical), strokes 3–4, each finished before the next.
- Left-falling stroke ㇒top leftdown and left
- Horizontal ㇐top leftrightwards
- Horizontal ㇐leftrightwards
- Vertical ㇑topdownwards
Japanese and Chinese
Japanese and Chinese draw all 4 strokes in the same order and direction, by our stroke-by-stroke comparison.
The trap in 午
Stroke 1 is the left-falling stroke and stroke 2 the horizontal, the same as in 右; 左 does the opposite.
Trace it
Follow the numbers. Tracing help
Readings
- On (Chinese-derived)
- ゴ go
- Kun (native)
- うま uma (rare)
- Meanings
- noon; sign of the horse; 11AM-1PM; seventh sign of Chinese zodiac
- Read go
- 午前 午後 正午 午前中
- School year
- second grade
- Newspaper rank
- 154th of 2,500 (KANJIDIC2)
- Korean hanja
- 오 o
- Common words
- 4 in JMdict
Words with 午
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 午前 | ごぜん gozen | morning; a.m. |
| 午後 | ごご gogo | afternoon; p.m. |
| 正午 | しょうご shougo | noon; midday |
| 午前中 | ごぜんちゅう gozenchuu | in the morning; during the morning |
Most common first (JMdict).
Practice sheet
Print at 100%. Several kanji: worksheet maker.
Keep going
Same parts:
JLPT N5, in list order: