roof, house, shop, dealer
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.
はい！パン屋の前を通りますよ。
Hai! Pan-ya no mae o toorimasu yo.
I am! You'll pass by a bakery.
その会館は、小さな本屋の裏に隠れています。
Sono kaikan wa, chiisana honya no ura ni kakurete imasu.
The hall is tucked away, behind a small bookstore.
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