month, moon
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.
月曜日の朝、ルーカスはいつも通り仕事に来ました。
Getsuyoubi no asa, Rūkasu wa itsumo doori shigoto ni kimashita.
It was Monday morning, and Lucas got to work like always.
ブラジル出身で、日本に住んで六ヶ月です。
Burajiru shusshin de, Nihon ni sunde roku kagetsu desu.
Originally from Brazil, he's been living in Japan for six months.
数日後、日本は9月に珍しい連休に入るところでした。
Suujitsu go, Nihon wa kugatsu ni mezurashii renkyuu ni hairu tokoro deshita.
In a few days, Japan would enter one of its rare stretches of holidays in September.
何を買うかはもう決めてたんだ——先月見た、フードに毛皮がついた黒いやつ。
Nani wo kau ka wa mou kimeteta nda -- sengetsu mita, fuudo ni kegawa ga tsuita kuroi yatsu.
I knew exactly what I was going to get: that black one with the fur-lined hood I saw last month.
いいね。忘れないで、衣替えは来年の六月にまた来るから。
Ii ne. Wasurenaide, koromogae wa rainen no rokugatsu ni mata kuru kara.
Good idea. Don't forget: koromogae comes around again next year, in June.
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