noon, sign of the horse, 11AM-1PM, seventh sign of Chinese zodiac
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.
午後は、会議とライン作業であっという間に過ぎていきました。
Gogo wa, kaigi to rain sagyou de attoiuma ni sugite ikimashita.
The afternoon flew by, between the meeting and work on the line.
なんで「十五時」って言うの？「午後三時」じゃなくて？
Nande "juugo-ji" tte iu no? "Gogo san-ji" ja nakute?
Why do you say "fifteen hundred" instead of "three PM"?
Readings and meanings: KANJIDIC2 · Decomposition: KRADFILE · Both from Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group, CC BY-SA 4.0 · data from 2026-09-07 · Strokes: KanjiVG, Ulrich Apel, CC BY-SA 3.0