風
かぜ
hepburn kaze
wind
Part of speech · noun
Pattern visualization
Examples
- 今日は風が強いです。The wind is strong today.
- 風が冷たいです。The wind is cold.
Collocations
風が強い (wind is strong)風が冷たい (wind is cold)風邪 (kaze-cold, illness — same Hepburn)風船 (fuusen, balloon)台風 (taifuu, typhoon)
Mnemonic
かぜ — 風, Yamato. The homophone 風邪 kaze-cold (a head cold) lives in a separate slug — kaze-wind / kaze-cold. The kanji 風 carries two voices — kunyomi かぜ (Yamato word): 風が強い (the wind is strong), 風が冷たい (the wind is cold). onyomi ふう (Sino-Japanese): 台風 taifuu (typhoon), 風船 fuusen (balloon), 和風 wafuu (Japanese style). The Korean reading pung is sibling to the onyomi ふう — one kanji wears two voices, even inside Japanese.
Quick check
How is "typhoon" 台風 read in Japanese?