Hello! こんにちは! I am currently learning Kanji on WaniKani and was curious on this translation?
It says for the kanji “カ” it means “power” and is spelled “りょく” but is then used in the example sentence is “They defeat him and lock (りょく) him up, so that he can’t hurt anyone ever again.” Which would lead me to then assume it means “lock” not “power”.
It is then under the “used in” category it is used as “power” but spelled “ちから” and sentence used as “The most powerful man in the world. All his power came from his cheek (ちから).”
I am curious on which is the actual translation and if it relies on context or what matters for what and/or how to read this. ありがとうございます!
2 comments
kanji don’t have pronunciations, words do
just like “lead” and “lead” are different words and have different pronunciations regardless of the same letters
>> the lead fisherman put a lead weight on the line <<
i have no idea what sentences you’re translating but i think you’re misreading kana
or the examples are just plain very very wrong
“lock” spelled phonetically would be ロック or ろっく but absolutely never 力 or ろっく in hiragana, nor りょく, unless this is some kind of multilayered wordplay pun, same for cheek
do you have an original source for the thing you’re trying to understand?
The “They defeat him and lock…” is an awful mnemonic for remembering an on-reading: りょく. 力 appears in the following vocabulary that will be introduced in the future with this on-reading:
電力 (でんりょく): electric power
無力 (むりょく): powerless
原子力 (げんしりょく): nuclear power
力 also appears as a vocabulary word that contains only one kanji. It uses the kun-reading: ちから:
あの人にはふじ山を動かす力がある。(あの ひと には ふじさん を うごかす ちから が ある。) That person has the power to move Mt. Fuji.
Later, WK will introduce another on-reading: りき. It is used in the following vocabulary:
馬力 (ばりき): horsepower
力士 (りきし): sumo wrestler