Meet 菓 in words for sweets, from an everyday snack to a box given as a souvenir.

The idea

菓 has 11 strokes; follow the linked stroke-order diagram. Its usual on-reading is カ. Learn 菓子（かし）, 和菓子（わがし） and 洋菓子（ようがし） as whole words: カ becomes が in the latter two.

Patterns to compare
Japanese wordReading
菓子かし
和菓子わがし
洋菓子ようがし

Examples

  • 駅えきでお菓子かしを買かいました。I bought sweets at the station.
  • お茶ちゃと一緒いっしょに和菓子わがしを食たべました。We ate Japanese sweets with tea.
  • あの店みせでは洋菓子ようがしを売うっています。That shop sells Western-style confectionery.
  • 姉あねは趣味しゅみでお菓子かしを作つくります。My sister makes sweets as a hobby.
  • このお菓子かしをみんなで分わけてください。Please share these sweets with everyone.
  • お土産みやげに菓子かしの箱はこをもらいました。I received a box of confectionery as a souvenir.

Read-aloud uses a synthetic Japanese voice available on your device. Voice quality and availability vary; it does not assess your pronunciation.

Watch out

菓子 can mean sweets or snacks generally; 和菓子 specifies Japanese-style sweets and 洋菓子 Western-style confectionery. Do not confuse 菓 with 果, used in 果物（くだもの）, fruit.

Try it yourself

  1. Write the reading of 菓子 in hiragana.

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    かし

    菓子 is かし. お菓子 adds the polite prefix お; the reading of 菓子 stays the same.

  2. Write the reading of 和菓子 in hiragana.

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    わがし

    和菓子 is わがし. The initial sound of 菓子 is voiced to が in this compound.

  3. Choose the missing kanji: 洋＿子（ようがし）［菓／果］.

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    菓

    菓 completes 洋菓子（ようがし）, Western-style confectionery. 果 is the fruit character.

Use it today

Write 菓 using the diagram. Cover the table, read the three words aloud and make a sentence about a sweet you like.