early, fast
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.
もちろん！一緒なら、もっと早く着くよ。
Mochiron! Issho nara, motto hayaku tsuku yo.
Of course! It'll be even faster if we go together.
店主は無駄口をきかず、素早く手を動かしていました。
Tenshu wa mudaguchi o kikazu, subayaku te o ugokashite imashita.
The owner worked fast, without saying a word more than necessary.
うん…おかしいわね。早めに来るって言ってたのに。
Un... okashii wa ne. Hayame ni kuru tte itteta noni.
No... that's odd. She said she'd come early.
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