夜 — how to write the kanji for “night”

夜 (“night” and “evening”) is a JLPT N4 kanji taught in second grade in Japan. In newspapers it is the 487th most used kanji. Its parts: 亠 (“lid”), strokes 1–2; 亻 (“person”), strokes 3–4; 夕 (“evening”, its radical), strokes 5–7, each finished before the next. On its own it is the word yoru, “night; evening”. Read ya, it forms 日夜 (“day and night”), 深夜 (“late at night”) and 夜間 (“night”); the native reading yo gives 夜中 (“middle of the night”) and 夜明け (“dawn”). Chinese reads it yè, “night”, at HSK 4.

Strokes: 8
JLPT: N4
Radical: 夕 (“evening”)
On: ヤ
Kun: よ, よる

Stroke by stroke

Vertical ㇑topdownwards
Horizontal ㇐top leftrightwards
Left-falling stroke ㇒top leftdown and left
Vertical ㇑leftdownwards
Left-falling stroke ㇒topdown and left
Horizontal then left-falling ㇇centerrightwards → down and left
Dot ㇔centerdown and right
Right-falling stroke ㇏centerdown and right

Japanese and Chinese

The two models differ in shape, so our comparison does not claim an order; compare the numbered frames yourself (8 strokes in Japanese, 8 strokes in Chinese).

Japanese · KanjiVG · 8 strokes

Chinese · Make Me a Hanzi · 8 strokes

Trace it

Follow the numbers. Tracing help

Readings

On (Chinese-derived): ヤ ya
Kun (native): よ yo, よる yoru
Meanings: night; evening
Read ya: 日夜深夜夜間前夜一夜同夜
Read yo: 夜中夜明け
School year: second grade
Newspaper rank: 487th of 2,500 (KANJIDIC2)
Korean hanja: 야 ya
Common words: 25 in JMdict

On and kun, explained

Words with 夜

Word	Reading	Meaning
日夜	にちや nichiya	day and night; around the clock
深夜	しんや shin'ya	late at night
夜間	やかん yakan	night; nighttime
前夜	ぜんや zen'ya	last night; the previous night
一夜	いちや ichiya	one night; all night
同夜	どうや douya	the same night; that night
徹夜	てつや tetsuya	staying up all night
夜中	よなか yonaka	middle of the night; dead of night
夜明け	よあけ yoake	dawn; daybreak
夜勤	やきん yakin	night duty; night shift

Most common first (JMdict).

Practice sheet

Print at 100%. Several kanji: worksheet maker.

Keep going

Same parts:

JLPT N4, in list order: