会う

Pattern visualization

Examples

1. 明日友達に会います。▶ —
   I will meet my friend tomorrow.
2. 駅で会いましょう。▶ —
   Let's meet at the station.

Collocations

Mnemonic

あう — 会う, Yamato. A godan verb. The kanji 会 pictures people gathered together at one spot. In the onyomi かい kai, it grows into daily words — 会社 kaisha (company), 会話 kaiwa (conversation), 集会 shuukai (assembly). The Korean reading hoe is sibling. A small N5 trap hides in the particle — English and Korean want a direct object: 'meet a friend'. So the instinct is ~を. Japanese refuses ~を here; it uses ~に or ~と instead. ~に会う: 'go to meet them' (directional). ~と会う: 'meet together' (mutual). When setting a meeting: 駅で会いましょう (let's meet at the station). In Japanese, 'meeting' is not an action done to someone but an event of two people gathering at one point.

Quick check

1. For "we met together", which particle is most natural?

   • ~と (mutual encounter — natural for "together")
   • ~に (directional — "went to meet")
   • ~を (wrong — au doesn't take object marker)
   • ~で (place of meeting, different role)