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Candy

On’yomi
MeaningsCandy, Cakes, Fruit
JLPT N2 11 strokes #1673 most common Secondary school Radical grass
書き順 · Stroke order

How to write 菓

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

11 strokes
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分解 · What it is made of

The parts of 菓

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 fruit =
Candy
Why it sounds the way it does. The part is the phonetic component — it carries the sound rather than the meaning. That is why 菓 is read . 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 菓

Radical 140 of 214
Grass

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

Other kanji built on 艸

練習 · Practice

Drill 菓 right now

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熟語 · In real words

Words that use 菓

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.

菓子 かし confectionery; sweets; candy
菓物 くだもの fruit
和菓子 わがし wagashi; traditional Japanese confectionery
駄菓子 だがし penny candy; cheap individually wrapped sweets
洋菓子 ようがし Western confectionery
製菓 せいか confectionery production
菓子屋 かしや confectionery shop; candy store; sweet shop
菓子パン かしパン baked sweet goods (e.g. Danish pastry, melon bread); sweet pastry; sweet bread
御菓子 おかし confections; sweets; candy
お菓子 おかし confections; sweets; candy
同音 · Sound-alikes

Kanji that sound like 菓

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

画数 · 11 strokes

Other 11-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

菓 is the 1673rd 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 菓

What does the kanji 菓 mean?

菓 means Candy, Cakes, Fruit. It is the 1673rd most common kanji in written Japanese.

How do you read the kanji 菓?

菓 is read on'yomi (Chinese-derived) か.

How many strokes does 菓 have?

菓 is written with 11 strokes. The animated diagram on this page shows the correct order.

What level is the kanji 菓?

It appears at JLPT level N2, and Japanese schoolchildren learn it in secondary school.

What is the radical of 菓?

The radical of 菓 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 菓 made of?

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

Why is 菓 read か?

菓 contains 里 as its phonetic component — the part that carries the sound rather than the meaning, which is why 菓 is read か. 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 菓?

Common words written with 菓 include 菓子 (かし, confectionery; sweets; candy); 菓物 (くだもの, fruit); 和菓子 (わがし, wagashi; traditional Japanese confectionery).

Which kanji sound the same as 菓?

菓 shares a reading with 化 (か), 下 (か), 加 (か), 家 (か), 価 (か), among others. Same-sounding kanji are one of the most common sources of confusion in Japanese.

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