With the right and left kanji, why is the stroke order for the 「ナ」part different?
For 右 you start with the vertical stroke downwards but for 左 it’s the horizontal stroke to the right.
Sorry if this is a stupid question that has been asked many times before, I couldn’t really find an answer that made sense online.
Thanks so much!
8 comments
Idk but I start both with horizontal first.
my mnemonic for remembering the “proper” stroke order here is that the unique part of 左 (the 工 bit) has more horizontal lines than vertical lines, so it starts with horizontal line, while the unique part of 右 has the same number of horizontal lines and vertical lines, so it starts with a vertical line.
still confusing tho.
This’ll sound convoluted as fuck, but…
If the stroke after the ナ is [1] vertical and [2] the vertical stroke doesn’t cross the diagonal stroke, then it’s the diagonal first. For example, 右, 有, 布.
Otherwise, when the ナ is followed by a horizontal stroke (including ones that bend) or a vertical stroke that clearly crosses the diagonal stroke, it’s the horizontal first. For example, 左, 友, 存, and 在.
存 and 在 are very weird because fonts can be insanely inconsistent about where strokes start, but 教科書体 fonts and 楷書体 (from which 教科書体 was derived to begin with) will be more consistent.
For some reason, I find the Chinese (Mandarin) stroke order better and more consistent for me. I use that instead of the Japanese stroke order.
右 stands for right, so start from right first.
左 is left so start from left first.
Have learnt Japanese for 1 year. Without come across this thread, I never know the strokes are different.
The 𠂇 in 左 originally depicted a left hand, while the 𠂇 in 右 originally depicted a right hand. The forms merged over time. The differing stroke order is a holdover from when they were different components.
Even most Japanese do this “wrong” so I wouldn’t worry about it