tale, talk
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.
明日は、コンビニでゆきさんに、この話をします。
Ashita wa, konbini de Yuki-san ni, kono hanashi o shimasu.
Tomorrow, he'll tell this story to Yuki at the store.
一人では落ち着けなくて、タナカに電話をかけました。
Hitori de wa ochitsukenakute, Tanaka ni denwa wo kakemashita.
Unable to calm himself down alone, he called Tanaka.
おじさんの話し方見てたら、なんとなく分かる気がする。
Ojisan no hanashikata mitetara, nantonaku wakaru ki ga suru.
I can kind of tell, from the way he talks to you.
電話はつながらず、そのまま留守番電話になりました。
Denwa wa tsunagarazu, sono mama rusuban denwa ni narimashita.
The call didn't even go through — it went straight to voicemail.
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