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

The idea

赤 has 7 strokes. Follow the linked stroke-order diagram. 赤い is read あかい and means red (adjective); 赤 is read あか and means red (colour). 赤ちゃん is read あかちゃん: baby.

Patterns to compare
Japanese wordReadingMeaning
赤いあかいred (adjective)
赤あかred (colour)
赤ちゃんあかちゃんbaby

Examples

  • この車くるまは赤あかいです。This car is red.
  • あのかばんは赤あかくないです。That bag is not red.
  • 赤あかい花はなが好すきです。I like red flowers.
  • 赤あかいえんぴつを使つかいます。I use a red pencil.
  • 私わたしのくつは赤あかです。My shoes are red.
  • 赤あかい帽子ぼうしはどれですか。Which is the red hat?
  • 赤あかちゃんが部屋へやで寝ねています。The baby is sleeping in the room.

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 赤 with 亦; notice their different parts and strokes rather than guessing from the overall shape. 赤い is an i-adjective: keep the final い before a noun; 赤 is the colour noun. 赤ちゃん is a separate word with its own meaning.

Try it yourself

  1. Write the reading of 赤い in hiragana.

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    あかい

    赤い is read あかい; it means red (adjective). Remember the reading with the whole word.

  2. Write the reading of 赤 in hiragana.

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    あか

    赤 is read あか; it means red (colour). Remember the reading with the whole word.

  3. Write あかちゃん in kanji for “baby”.

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    赤ちゃん

    赤ちゃん is written with 赤 and read あかちゃん; it means baby.

Use it today

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