ego, I, selfish, our
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.
私は大丈夫よ、サトウ。あなたは?怪我しなかった?
Watashi wa daijoubu yo, Satou. Anata wa? Kega shinakatta?
I'm fine, Sato. What about you, are you hurt?
それなら落ち着いて。良いことにも少し我慢が必要だよ。
Sore nara ochitsuite. Yoi koto ni mo sukoshi gaman ga hitsuyou da yo.
Then relax. Good things take a little patience too.
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