Meet 犬 in everyday words: its meaning here is dog. Learn each word with its own reading.

The idea

犬 has 4 strokes. Follow the linked stroke-order diagram. 犬 is read いぬ and means dog; 子犬 is read こいぬ and means puppy. 犬小屋 is read いぬごや: doghouse.

Patterns to compare
Japanese wordReadingMeaning
犬いぬdog
子犬こいぬpuppy
犬小屋いぬごやdoghouse

Examples

  • 庭にわに犬いぬがいます。There is a dog in the garden.
  • 犬いぬが水みずを飲のんでいます。The dog is drinking water.
  • 家いえで犬いぬと遊あそびます。I play with the dog at home.
  • 子犬こいぬが寝ねています。A puppy is sleeping.
  • 子犬こいぬは白しろいです。The puppy is white.
  • この犬いぬは魚さかなが好すきです。This dog likes fish.
  • 庭にわに犬小屋いぬごやがあります。There is a doghouse in the garden.

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

Watch out

Compare 犬 with 大; notice their different parts and strokes rather than guessing from the overall shape. 犬 has a dot at the upper right; 大 does not. 子犬 names a young dog, while 犬小屋 is its shelter.

Try it yourself

  1. Write the reading of 犬 in hiragana.

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    いぬ

    犬 is read いぬ; it means dog. Remember the reading with the whole word.

  2. Write the reading of 子犬 in hiragana.

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    こいぬ

    子犬 is read こいぬ; it means puppy. Remember the reading with the whole word.

  3. Write いぬごや in kanji for “doghouse”.

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    犬小屋

    犬小屋 is written with 犬 and read いぬごや; it means doghouse.

Use it today

Write 犬 three times using the linked stroke order. Cover the table, read 犬 and 子犬, and make a sentence with one of them.