暖かい

Pattern visualization

Examples

1. 春は暖かいです。▶ —
   Spring is warm.
2. 温かいスープが好きです。▶ —
   I like warm soup.

Collocations

Mnemonic

あたたかい — 暖かい・温かい, Yamato. An i-adjective. The pair to 寒い samui-cold. And like 寒い, this word splits two ways depending on the kanji ── 暖かい: weather, air, season is warm. 暖かい春 (a warm spring). 温かい: object, food, heart is warm. 温かいスープ (warm soup), 温かい人 (a warm person). Korean and English bundle 'warm' into one word; Japanese splits the territory by kanji. The structure runs exactly parallel to 寒い (air) / 冷たい (touch) ── Japanese reads temperature on two channels, atmosphere and contact. In the onyomi ── 暖 だん dan: 暖房 danbou (heating). 温 おん on: 温度 ondo (temperature), 温暖 ondan (mild, warm climate). The Korean readings nan and on are sisters to the onyomi だん and おん.

Quick check

1. "Warm soup" — which kanji?

   • 温かいスープ (food/object warm)
   • 暖かいスープ (technically wrong; 暖 for climate)
   • 熱いスープ (hot — 熱い, batch 3)
   • 暑いスープ (weather hot, wrong)