in, inside, middle, mean
Came from Chinese. It usually shows up when the kanji is joined to another, forming a compound word.
It is Japanese. It usually shows up when the kanji stands alone or is followed by hiragana.
The order matters: it is what makes handwriting come out legible, and it is how dictionaries index the character.
Visual decomposition, for recognising and comparing — not always the character's origin.
Where it appears is highlighted — the translation doesn't always make that visible.
マジで?!地震の最中に?!
Maji de?! Jishin no saichuu ni?!
Seriously?! In the middle of an earthquake?!
それでそんなに落ち着いてるの?!公演が中止になるかもしれないのに!
Sore de sonna ni ochitsuiteru no?! Kouen ga chuushi ni naru kamoshirenai noni!
And you're this calm about it?! This could ruin your show!
道の間、ずっと頭の中で計算していました。
Michi no aida, zutto atama no naka de keisan shite imashita.
He kept doing math in his head the whole way there.
ルーカスはまだ日本語を勉強中です。
Rūkasu wa mada nihongo o benkyouchuu desu.
Lucas is still learning Japanese.
佐藤さんは鶏肉、田中さんは魚なし…わかりました。
Satou-san wa toriniku, Tanaka-san wa sakana nashi… wakarimashita.
Chicken for Sato, no fish for Tanaka... got it.
途中で、紙を持ったおばあさんが近づいてきました。
Tochuu de, kami o motta obaasan ga chikazuite kimashita.
Partway there, an older woman approached, holding a piece of paper.
五時間ぐらい寝てます…仕事中に、すごく早く食べます。
Gojikan gurai netemasu... shigotochuu ni, sugoku hayaku tabemasu.
I sleep about five hours... and I eat really fast, in the middle of work.
夜中にアラームが鳴ったのは覚えてる。でも、何もわからなくて、また寝ちゃった。
Yonaka ni araamu ga natta no wa oboeteru. Demo, nani mo wakaranakute, mata nechatta.
I just remember an alarm going off in the middle of the night. I didn't understand any of it and went back to sleep.
土曜日の夜、サトウは台所でとても気をつかう作業に集中していました。
Doyoubi no yoru, Satou wa daidokoro de totemo ki wo tsukau sagyou ni shuuchuu shite imashita.
On Saturday night, Sato was in the kitchen, focused on something that needed a lot of care.
Readings and meanings: KANJIDIC2 · Decomposition: KRADFILE · Both from Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group, CC BY-SA 4.0 · data from 2026-10-22 · Strokes: KanjiVG, Ulrich Apel, CC BY-SA 3.0