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Young

On’yomiじゃく・にゃく・にゃ
Kun’yomiわか.い・わか-・も.しくわ・も.し・も.しくは
MeaningsYoung, If, Perhaps, Possibly, Low Number, Immature
JLPT N3 8 strokes #454 most common Grade 6 Radical grass
書き順 · Stroke order

How to write 若

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

8 strokes
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Draw it on screen and be marked on stroke order and direction.

分解 · What it is made of

The parts of 若

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 grass
+ bottom right =
Young
部首 · Radical

The radical of 若

Radical 140 of 214
Grass

The radical is the part a paper dictionary files a kanji under, and it usually hints at meaning. 若 is filed under (grass) — radical number 140 of the 214 in the Kangxi system.

Other kanji built on 艸

練習 · Practice

Drill 若 right now

Three quick games built from this character's real data. Your streak is kept in this browser.

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Young じゃく・にゃく・にゃ わか.い・わか-・も.しくわ・も.し・も.しくは
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熟語 · In real words

Words that use 若

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.

若者 わかもの young person; youngster; young people
若手 わかて young person
若干 じゃっかん some; few; a number of
若さ わかさ youth; youthfulness
若返り わかがえり rejuvenation; restoration of youth
若年 じゃくねん youth
若葉 わかば new leaves; young leaves; fresh verdure
老若 ろうにゃく young and old; all ages
般若 はんにゃ prajna (wisdom required to attain enlightenment); hannya; mask of a grinning, horned demon
若い者 わかいもの young person; young people; youth
名乗り · Name readings

How 若 is read in names

Japanese names use readings that appear nowhere else in the language. These are 若's — the reason personal and place names are so hard to read even for native speakers.

わくわこ
同音 · Sound-alikes

Kanji that sound like 若

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

地名 · In place names

Japanese towns written with 若

Place names are where kanji readings get strange — and where you meet this character in the wild.

画数 · 8 strokes

Other 8-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

若 is the 454th most common kanji in written Japanese. Learning in frequency order is the fastest route to reading real text.

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Kanji Duel pits 若 and 3,000 others head to head. One life. How long can you last?

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質問 · Questions

About the kanji 若

What does the kanji 若 mean?

若 means Young, If, Perhaps, Possibly, Low Number, Immature. It is the 454th most common kanji in written Japanese.

How do you read the kanji 若?

若 is read on'yomi (Chinese-derived) じゃく、にゃく、にゃ; kun'yomi (native Japanese) わか.い、わか-、も.しくわ、も.し、も.しくは.

How many strokes does 若 have?

若 is written with 8 strokes. The animated diagram on this page shows the correct order.

What level is the kanji 若?

It appears at JLPT level N3, and Japanese schoolchildren learn it in grade 6.

What is the radical of 若?

The radical of 若 is 艸 (grass), radical number 140 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.

What parts is the kanji 若 made of?

若 is built from 艹 (grass) and 右 (right). Learning kanji as combinations of a few hundred reusable components is far more efficient than memorising each character as a separate shape.

What words use the kanji 若?

Common words written with 若 include 若者 (わかもの, young person; youngster; young people); 若手 (わかて, young person); 若干 (じゃっかん, some; few; a number of).

Which kanji sound the same as 若?

若 shares a reading with 着 (じゃく), 弱 (じゃく), 寂 (じゃく), 雀 (じゃく), 柘 (じゃく), among others. Same-sounding kanji are one of the most common sources of confusion in Japanese.

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