Japanese kanji 寒: cold weather and climate

The idea

寒 has 12 strokes; follow the linked stroke-order diagram. 寒い（さむい） is an i-adjective: 寒くなりました means “it became cold”. In compounds such as 寒冷（かんれい） and 寒中（かんちゅう）, 寒 is read かん.

Examples

• 今日きょうは寒さむいです。It is cold today.
• この町まちの冬ふゆは寒さむいです。Winter in this town is cold.
• 寒さむくなったので、窓まどを閉しめました。It got cold, so I closed the window.
• 寒さむい日ひはコートを着きます。I wear a coat on cold days.
• この地域ちいきは寒冷かんれいな気候きこうです。This region has a cold climate.
• 寒中かんちゅうはどうぞお体からだに気きをつけてください。Please take care of yourself during the cold season.

Watch out

寒い describes cold air, weather or how a person feels; 冷たい（つめたい） describes something cold to the touch, such as water. Learn the whole word rather than assigning one reading to every use of 寒.

Try it yourself

1. Write the reading of 寒い in hiragana.

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   さむい

   寒い is さむい. The い is part of the adjective; 今日 is cold in the first example.

2. Write the reading of 寒冷 in hiragana.

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   かんれい

   寒冷 is かんれい. This compound describes a cold climate; both kanji use Sino-Japanese readings.

3. Choose the missing kanji: ＿い（さむい）［寒／冷］.

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   寒

   寒 completes 寒い, read さむい. 冷 appears in 冷たい, which describes a cold object.

Use it today

Write 寒 using the stroke diagram. Cover the table, read 寒い and 寒冷, then describe a cold day.