忙しい

Pattern visualization

Examples

1. 今週は忙しいです。▶ —
   I'm busy this week.
2. お忙しいところすみません。▶ —
   Sorry to bother you when you're busy.

Collocations

Mnemonic

いそがしい — 忙しい, Yamato stem (isoga) + kanji 忙. An i-adjective. The kanji 忙 paints the meaning straight through its parts — 心 (heart) + 亡 (lose) = 'so busy you lose your heart'. The Korean reading mang carries the same kanji and metaphor — Japanese and Korean share the same picture. The line you hear most often in Japanese business ritual — お忙しいところすみません o-isogashii tokoro sumimasen = 'sorry to bother you when you're busy'. For any request or question that intrudes on someone's time, this is the default opener. The most common opening phrase in business emails. In the onyomi ぼう bou — 多忙 tabou (very busy), 繁忙 hanbou (peak season). A textbook case of a kanji that binds feeling and action inside one character.

Quick check

1. Cognitive metaphor in the components of 忙?

   • 心 (heart) + 亡 (lose) = busyness that loses the heart
   • Dead heart (depression)
   • Warning that busy = die
   • Unrelated, phono-semantic