commence, begin
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.
勤務は八時に始まります。
Kinmu wa hachi-ji ni hajimarimasu.
His shift started at eight.
それを逃したら、次は始発の朝五時だけだ。
Sore o nogashitara, tsugi wa shihatsu no asa go-ji dake da.
If you miss it, the only other one is tomorrow's first train, at five AM.
その時、家が揺れ始めました。
Sono toki, ie ga yure hajimemashita.
That's when the house started shaking.
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