浮 connects floating on water with ideas and expressions that appear. Learn it in complete words.

The idea

浮 has 10 strokes; follow the linked diagram. 浮く（うく） and 浮かぶ（うかぶ） describe something floating or appearing; 浮かべる（うかべる） means to float something or show an expression.

Patterns to compare
WordReadingMeaning
浮くうくfloat
浮かぶうかぶfloat; come to mind
浮かべるうかべるfloat something; show

Examples

  • 葉はが水みずに浮ういています。A leaf is floating on the water.
  • 湖みずうみに船ふねが浮うかんでいます。A boat is floating on the lake.
  • 考かんがえが頭あたまに浮うかびました。An idea came to mind.
  • 彼女かのじょは笑えみを浮うかべました。She smiled.
  • 泡あわが水面すいめんに浮うかびました。Bubbles rose to the surface.
  • 器うつわに花はなを浮うかべました。We floated flowers in a bowl.

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

Watch out

浮かぶ is intransitive: an idea comes to mind. 浮かべる takes an object with を: someone floats flowers or shows a smile.

Try it yourself

  1. 浮く → ひらがな

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    うく

    浮く is うく: a leaf can float on water.

  2. 浮かぶ → ひらがな

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    うかぶ

    浮かぶ is うかぶ: an idea can come to mind.

  3. 花を水に＿べる。［浮か／浮き］

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    浮か

    浮か completes 浮かべる. 花を marks the flowers as the object floated.

Use it today

Write 浮 using the stroke diagram. Cover the table, read the three verbs and make a sentence with one.