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Persuade

On’yomiかん・けん
Kun’yomiすす.める
MeaningsPersuade, Recommend, Advise, Encourage, Offer
JLPT N1 13 strokes #1046 most common Secondary school Radical power
書き順 · Stroke order

How to write 勧

Stroke order is not decoration — it determines how the character looks handwritten and how dictionaries index it.

13 strokes
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分解 · What it is made of

The parts of 勧

Almost every kanji is built from a small set of reusable parts. Learn the parts once and you stop memorising thousands of unrelated shapes.

radical power =
Persuade
Why it sounds the way it does. The part 雚V is the phonetic component — it carries the sound rather than the meaning. That is why 勧 is read かん. Roughly two-thirds of all kanji work this way, which makes unfamiliar readings guessable once you spot the pattern.
部首 · Radical

The radical of 勧

Radical 19 of 214
Power

The radical is the part a paper dictionary files a kanji under, and it usually hints at meaning. 勧 is filed under (power) — radical number 19 of the 214 in the Kangxi system.

Other kanji built on 力

練習 · Practice

Drill 勧 right now

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Persuade かん・けん すす.める
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熟語 · In real words

Words that use 勧

Kanji are almost never met alone. These are the most common words built from this character, ordered by how often they actually appear in Japanese.

勧告 かんこく advice; counsel; remonstrance
勧誘 かんゆう invitation; solicitation; canvassing
勧め すすめ recommendation; advice; suggestion
勧奨 かんしょう encouragement; stimulation
勧業 かんぎょう (encouragement of) industry
勧進帳 かんじんちょう temple solicitation book
勧善懲悪 かんぜんちょうあく rewarding good and punishing evil; poetic justice
勧進 かんじん temple solicitation
勧める すすめる to recommend (someone to do); to advise; to encourage
勧学 カンガク encouragement of learning
同音 · Sound-alikes

Kanji that sound like 勧

Japanese has far more kanji than syllables, so one reading is shared by many characters. These are the ones you will confuse with 勧 — learn them together, not separately.

画数 · 13 strokes

Other 13-stroke kanji

Useful when looking a character up by stroke count — and a common source of visual mix-ups.

頻度 · Frequency

Next in the frequency list

勧 is the 1046th most common kanji in written Japanese. Learning in frequency order is the fastest route to reading real text.

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質問 · Questions

About the kanji 勧

What does the kanji 勧 mean?

勧 means Persuade, Recommend, Advise, Encourage, Offer. It is the 1046th most common kanji in written Japanese.

How do you read the kanji 勧?

勧 is read on'yomi (Chinese-derived) かん、けん; kun'yomi (native Japanese) すす.める.

How many strokes does 勧 have?

勧 is written with 13 strokes. The animated diagram on this page shows the correct order.

What level is the kanji 勧?

It appears at JLPT level N1, and Japanese schoolchildren learn it in secondary school.

What is the radical of 勧?

The radical of 勧 is 力 (power), radical number 19 of the 214 Kangxi radicals. The radical is the component a dictionary files the character under, and it usually points at the character's meaning.

Why is 勧 read かん?

勧 contains 雚V as its phonetic component — the part that carries the sound rather than the meaning, which is why 勧 is read かん. Roughly two-thirds of all kanji are built this way, so spotting the phonetic component often lets you guess the reading of a character you have never seen.

What words use the kanji 勧?

Common words written with 勧 include 勧告 (かんこく, advice; counsel; remonstrance); 勧誘 (かんゆう, invitation; solicitation; canvassing); 勧め (すすめ, recommendation; advice; suggestion).

Which kanji sound the same as 勧?

勧 shares a reading with 見 (けん), 間 (かん), 関 (かん), 県 (けん), 権 (けん), among others. Same-sounding kanji are one of the most common sources of confusion in Japanese.

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