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Person

On’yomiじん・にん
Kun’yomiひと・-り・-と
2 strokes #5 most common Grade 1 Radical man
書き順 · Stroke order

How to write 人

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

2 strokes
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部首 · Radical

The radical of 人

Radical 9 of 214
Man

The radical is the part a paper dictionary files a kanji under, and it usually hints at meaning. 人 is filed under (man) — radical number 9 of the 214 in the Kangxi system.

Other kanji built on 人

練習 · Practice

Drill 人 right now

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

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Person じん・にん ひと・-り・-と
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熟語 · In real words

Words that use 人

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.

人人 ひとびと people; men and women; each person
二人 ふたり two persons; two people; pair
三人 さんにん three people
人間 にんげん human being; human; person
人気 にんき popularity; public favor; condition (e.g. market)
人口 じんこう population; common talk
個人 こじん individual; private person; personal
良人 おっと husband
人々 ひとびと people; men and women; each person
日本人 にほんじん Japanese person
名乗り · Name readings

How 人 is read in names

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

ひこふみ
同音 · Sound-alikes

Kanji that sound like 人

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

地名 · In place names

Japanese towns written with 人

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

画数 · 2 strokes

Other 2-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

人 is the 5th 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 人

What does the kanji 人 mean?

人 means Person. It is the 5th most common kanji in written Japanese.

How do you read the kanji 人?

人 is read on'yomi (Chinese-derived) じん、にん; kun'yomi (native Japanese) ひと、-り、-と.

How many strokes does 人 have?

人 is written with 2 strokes. The animated diagram on this page shows the correct order.

What level is the kanji 人?

Japanese schoolchildren learn it in grade 1.

What is the radical of 人?

The radical of 人 is 人 (man), radical number 9 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 words use the kanji 人?

Common words written with 人 include 人人 (ひとびと, people; men and women; each person); 二人 (ふたり, two persons; two people; pair); 三人 (さんにん, three people).

Which kanji sound the same as 人?

人 shares a reading with 認 (にん), 任 (にん), 陣 (じん), 尽 (じん), 臣 (じん), among others. Same-sounding kanji are one of the most common sources of confusion in Japanese.

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