自然
しぜん
hepburn shizen
nature, natural
Part of speech · noun / na-adjective
Pattern visualization
no decomposition available
Examples
- 自然が大好きです。I love nature.
- 自然な日本語を話したいです。I want to speak natural Japanese.
Collocations
自然 (shizen, nature — noun; natural — na-adj)自然な (shizen na, natural [+noun])自然に (shizen ni, naturally — adverb)自然災害 (shizen saigai, natural disaster)不自然 (fushizen, unnatural)
Mnemonic
自然 shizen — kanji "self (自) + thus (然)" = "being so of itself" = nature. The compound is Taoist (Laozi/Zhuangzi: nature = what exists without human interference), shared across Korean, Chinese, Japanese. Dual: noun (自然, nature) and na-adjective (自然な日本語, natural Japanese). Companion vocabulary: 不自然 (fushizen, unnatural / awkward), 人工 (jinkou, artificial). Core to Japanese aesthetics — wabi-sabi and the tea ceremony foreground natural beauty. One word spans philosophy, aesthetics, and everyday evaluation.
Quick check
Daoist (Laozi/Zhuangzi) meaning of 自然?