速い vs 早い – what are other examples of words that have different kanjis depending on the meaning and usage?

19 comments

1. 暑い and 熱い are both “hot” (あつい）

   The weather can be 暑い
   Soup or cofefe can be 熱い

   暖かい and 温かい and both warm (あたたかい)

2. 登る, 昇る, 上る

   聞く, 聴く, 訊く

   効く, 利く

3. Given your example, I can think of a few:

   探す vs 捜す, both are “search”, but the first one is more like… “looking for”, such as looking for a missing person, looking for a job, where as the second one is used for like searching something concrete and mostly close by, such as search a room, search a house for a person, search for something in a drawer, etc.

   Then there is 変える, 替える, 代えるand 換える.

   They are all かえる

   変える: Change. Change the world, change your own life, change the color of the wallpaper, etc.

   替える: Change and replace (swap) with the same type of thing. Change/replace a CEO at a company. It’s just a different person doing the same job.

   代える: Change/replace with a *different* type of thing. You use this if you want to say the CEO was swapped out with ChatGPT 🤣

   換える: this implies some kind of exchange. You use this to say “I exchanged my love for her money” or “I changed/exchanged money into time”.

   In fact, if you combine the kanji from 1 and 4 you get 変換, which is a する verb that roughly means “to convert, to transform”.

   Then there is my favorite one:

   陰 and 影. Both are かげ, and both roughly mean shadow.

   But this picture shows the nuance https://i.imgur.com/UurD97U.jpg

   Then there is 陰影, together it still means shadow, but also can take the meaning of “nuance” or “feel” in things, such as music, 文, etc.

4. 取る　撮る　捕る　採る　執る　獲る　摂る　執る　

   見る　看る　観る

   釣る　吊る　(perhaps an edge case)

   聞く　聴く

   飛ぶ　跳ぶ　翔ぶ

   喜ぶ　悦ぶ　慶ぶ　歓ぶ　

   思う　想う

5. 帰る and 返る both have identical hiragana spelling「かえる」and refer to somewhat similar actions but are completely different words. 帰る means to return [home] (intransitive) while 返る means to be returned, to go back (refers to inanimate objects usually, also intransitive).

   they might have different pitch accents though, jisho dictionary pronounces them identically but that might be wrong, idk

6. A great number of verbs and adjectives have alternative kanji, though most have fallen out of use. It comes down to the differences between Japanese and Chinese. The different kanji are all the different ways you could translate the Japanese word into Chinese in different contexts. Now that written Japanese has evolved to be separate from written Chinese, those subtleties don’t have to be strictly respected anymore and so words are settling onto one kanji for all senses for simplicity.

7. This is kind of cheating but here is a massive list of these nuance-lending variant spellings that I find helpful as a reference resource:

   http://www.bretmayer.com/ijidokun.html#ijidokun_view

   Even this isn’t comprehensive, I recently had a surprise when I came across 甦る as a rarer spelling of 蘇る (apparently it more strongly specifies the ‘memory resurfacing’ sense of the word)

8. 会う 合う
   いる 要る 入る

9. Good old 見る 観る 診る 看る 視る and a bunch of others.

10. macos’s Japanese to English dictionary is very good because it is intended for Japanese natives.
    As a result, nuances become clear in a more natural way.

11. 踊る
    躍る

12. 行く, 逝く, イク

    Sorry, I’ll see myself out.

    Also, yes, the last one is katakana-only, but it does actually have a specific nuance attached to it.

13. 近い – chikai (close)

    誓い – chikai (vow)

14. There’s quite a few 同訓異字 (どうくんいじ) (different kanji, same reading, and often similar meaning).

    Some are easier than others to get used to (like 速い vs 早い or 聞くvs 聴く). One that I recently finally read a proper explanation of was the 4 「かえる」.

    変える　替える　換える　代える

    https://tadasiikeigo.com/kaeru/

    (Not including the other かえるs 帰る, 返る, and 還る, which are their own 同訓異字, have a different pitch accent, and are godan verbs, not ichidan)

    If you look up something like XとYの違い, you can find good and simple explanations in Japanese for this kind of thing (Probably tough now since you’re new to kanji and stuff, but something to keep in mind for the future).

15. One that I’m surprised to not see on this post so far：

    現れる　＆　表れる

    They can both mean “to appear,” but have a subtle difference in meaning (like most of these words).

    現れる: to appear, to come into existence*

    表れる: to appear, to come into view*

16. https://www.kanjipedia.jp/sakuin/doukunigi/%E3%81%82

17. 会う　逢う　遭う　遇う

18. I think 「はかる」is annoying even for Japanese people lolI wonder how many Japanese people can use each of the first four words properly…
    I can’t do that unless I look for their meanings.
    I think I usually use 測る even for the weight like 体重(たいじゅう)を測る (･_･;

    「はかる」
    計る 図る 測る 量る 謀る 諮る

    計る: To count the number or time or to find out the degree of something.

    図る:To plan and aim for realization of things

    測る:To examine depth, length, breadth, and temperature

    量る: To find out the weight or volume

    諮る:To ask for another person’s opinion

    謀る : To “plot, to plan a bad/evil deed

19. They are also used in compounds that mean quickly 早速, so understand that while there are differences, there are also not differences.

    Sometimes we get so wound up by how things are translated, that we forget that we actually mean two different things by most words in English that are expressed by two different words in Japan. And that is forgetting that most words have significantly more than two distinct meanings, often completely unrelated, and often Direct opposite meanings (Sanction means both punitive disapproval, and official approval)

    Fast has at least six major difference in meanings, two of which you are hanging up on, because you learned a new kanji or two. (Glued together, Holding firmly, Non-fading, Not eating, Loose morals, High speed, Earlier than expected)

    A Japanese person must be confused by how a shirt is fast, and someone grabbing on a railing is fast, and why the two pieces of wood glued together are fast, and why the dude not eating is fast, when their dictionary just say はやい means early, or quick.

    They can probably suss out the meaning of a fast woman, by extension, but in no way will they understand the other meanings.