eat, food
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.
どういたしまして。食べてみてください。
Dou itashimashite. Tabete mite kudasai.
You're welcome. Go ahead and try it.
分かりました。睡眠と食生活はどう?
Wakarimashita. Suimin to shokuseikatsu wa dou?
I see. And how's your sleep and your diet?
こうして、感謝の食事は、二人の新しい習慣の言い訳になったのでした。
Koushite, kansha no shokuji wa, futari no atarashii shuukan no iiwake ni natta no deshita.
And so, the thank-you dinner became an excuse for a new habit of theirs.
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