tie, bind, contract, join
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.
まあ、結局うまくいってよかったです。
Maa, kekkyoku umaku itte yokatta desu.
Well, at least it all worked out in the end.
画面は結果でいっぱいになりましたが、どれも安心できるものではありませんでした。
Gamen wa kekka de ippai ni narimashita ga, dore mo anshin dekiru mono de wa arimasen deshita.
The screen filled up with results, and none of them were reassuring.
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