年
年 — Year
year, counter for years
On’yomiネン (nen)
Kun’yomiとし (toshi)
Stroke order (6 strokes)
Watch the strokes draw themselves in the correct order — numbers mark where each stroke starts. Diagram from KanjiVG (CC BY-SA).
Common words using 年
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 昨年 | さくねん sakunen | last year |
| 前年 | ぜんねん zennen | the preceding year; the previous year; last year |
| 年間 | ねんかん nenkan | (period of) a year; during the era (of) |
| 来年 | らいねん rainen | next year |
| 今年 | ことし kotoshi | this year |
| 周年 | しゅうねん shuunen | whole year; entire year; n-th year anniversary |
Study notes
年 is a JLPT N5 kanji written with 6 strokes. It is taught in Japanese elementary school (grade 1), so native children learn it early — a good sign it appears everywhere. Ranked #6 of the 2,500 most frequent kanji in newspapers. On’yomi (音読み) are Chinese-derived readings mostly used in compound words; kun’yomi (訓読み) are native Japanese readings, with any highlighted part written in hiragana after the kanji (okurigana).
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