show, indicate, point out, express
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.
入り口の近くの掲示板には、今日のプログラムが貼ってありました。
Iriguchi no chikaku no keijiban ni wa, kyou no puroguramu ga hatte arimashita.
On the event board near the entrance was the day's program.
携帯は七時四十二分を示していました。
Keitai wa shichi-ji yonjuuni-fun o shimeshite imashita.
His phone showed seven forty-two.
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