日 — how to write the kanji for “day”
日 means “day”, “sun” and “Japan”; it is a JLPT N5 kanji, taught in first grade in Japan. In newspapers it is one of the hundred most used kanji (1st). As one of the 214 traditional radicals it heads 202 kanji in KANJIDIC2. On its own it is the word hi, “day; days”. Its common words take the reading nichi: 日米 (“Japan and the United States”), 毎日 (“every day”), 日程 (“schedule”) and 対日 (“toward Japan”). Chinese reads it rì, “sun”, at HSK 1.
- Strokes
- 4
- JLPT
- N5
- Radical
- 日 (“day”)
- On
- ニチ, ジツ
- Kun
- ひ, -か, -び
Stroke by stroke
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- Vertical ㇑top leftdownwards
- Horizontal-turn ㇕top leftrightwards → downwards
- Horizontal ㇐leftrightwards
- Horizontal ㇐bottom leftrightwards
Japanese and Chinese
Japanese and Chinese draw all 4 strokes in the same order and direction, by our stroke-by-stroke comparison.
Under the radical 日
Trace it
Follow the numbers. Tracing help
Readings
- On (Chinese-derived)
- ニチ nichi, ジツ jitsu
- Kun (native)
- ひ hi, -か -ka, -び -bi
- Meanings
- day; sun; Japan; counter for days
- Read nichi
- 日米 毎日 日程 対日
- Read jitsu
- 同日 全日 前日
- School year
- first grade
- Newspaper rank
- 1st of 2,500 (KANJIDIC2)
- Korean hanja
- 일 il
- Common words
- 178 in JMdict
Words with 日
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 同日 | どうじつ doujitsu | the same day |
| 日米 | にちべい nichibei | Japan and the United States; Japanese-American |
| 毎日 | まいにち mainichi | every day; daily |
| 日本人 | にほんじん nihonjin | Japanese person |
| 今日 | きょう kyou | today; this day |
| 全日 | ぜんじつ zenjitsu | all days |
| 前日 | ぜんじつ zenjitsu | previous day; day before |
| 日程 | にってい nittei | schedule; program |
| 日本語 | にほんご nihongo | Japanese (language) |
| 対日 | たいにち tainichi | toward Japan; with Japan |
Most common first (JMdict).
Practice sheet
Print at 100%. Several kanji: worksheet maker.
Keep going
JLPT N5, in list order: