before, ahead, previous, future
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.
あ、よかった、優しそうな先生だ…たぶん。
A, yokatta, yasashisou na sensei da... tabun.
Oh good, a nice doctor... I think.
その先、左に公園があります。
Sono saki, hidari ni kouen ga arimasu.
The park is right after that, on the left.
何を買うかはもう決めてたんだ——先月見た、フードに毛皮がついた黒いやつ。
Nani wo kau ka wa mou kimeteta nda -- sengetsu mita, fuudo ni kegawa ga tsuita kuroi yatsu.
I knew exactly what I was going to get: that black one with the fur-lined hood I saw last month.
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