VocabularyJLPT N5 · core

気

き

hepburn ki

spirit, mind, mood

Part of speech · noun

Pattern visualization

氣spirit

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Numbers6 strokes · 4.1s

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Examples

気をつけてください。
Please take care.
気分がいいです。
I feel good.

Collocations

気 (ki, spirit)気持ち (kimochi, feeling)気分 (kibun, mood)元気 (genki, well)気をつける (kiwotsukeru)

Mnemonic

き — 気, Sino-Japanese. The homophone 木 ki-tree lives in a separate slug ── ki-spirit / ki-tree. The kanji 気 is shared by Korean, Chinese, and Japanese, but Japanese has spread it the deepest and widest ── Korean splits the territory across gi / jeong / maeum, Chinese across 气 / 神 / 情, but Japanese piles a single 気 as a helper character into a sprawling cluster. The depth of the 気 cluster ── 元気 genki (vigour, health), 気持ち kimochi (feeling), 気分 kibun (mood), 天気 tenki (weather), 空気 kuuki (air), 雰囲気 fun-iki (atmosphere), 病気 byouki (illness), 気をつける (be careful), 気にする (mind something), 気に入る (take to one's liking). Roughly half the expressions for a person's inner state in Japanese touch 気 ── the nervous system of Japan's social vocabulary. The Korean reading gi is sister to the onyomi き.

Quick check

Ki multi-layers?