13
赤
Red
あか (aka), あかい (akai)
JLPT N4
Interesting Fact
🔴 The kanji 赤 may have originated from the image of a newborn baby. Ancient people noticed that newborns often had reddish skin, so a character connected to a baby eventually came to represent the color red itself. Thousands of years later, that symbol became the modern kanji 赤.
Memory Trick
🌋 A volcano erupts, and red lava spills across the ground. The top of 赤 is the earth, and the bottom is molten lava spreading everywhere.
Readings
Onyomi: セキ (seki), シャク (shaku)
Kunyomi: あか (aka), あかい (akai)
Example Words
赤
あか (aka)
Red
赤い
あかい (akai)
Red (adjective)
赤ちゃん
あかちゃん (akachan)
Baby
赤字
あかじ (akaji)
Deficit
Example Sentence
赤い 車が あります。
あかい くるまが あります。
akai kuruma ga arimasu
There is a red car.