寒い

Pattern visualization

Examples

1. 今日は寒いですね。▶ —
   It's cold today, isn't it.
2. 冬は寒くなります。▶ —
   Winter gets cold.

Collocations

Mnemonic

さむい — 寒い, Yamato. An i-adjective. The pair to 暑い atsui-hot. Korean and Japanese both split 'cold' into two words — Korean: chupda (chupda, weather) / chada (chada, touch). Japanese: 寒い samui (weather) / 冷たい tsumetai (touch). 冬は寒い (winter is cold) — 寒い only for air, temperature, season. For 'cold hands' you must reach for 冷たい: 手が冷たい. Where English collapses both into one "cold", the two East Asian languages share the same dividing line exactly. The kanji 寒 shows a house (宀) with grass piled inside (艹) and a person (人) shivering — a picture of cold.

Quick check

1. For "my hands are cold (touch)", which adjective?

   • 冷たい tsumetai (correct, touch-cold)
   • 寒い samui (weather-cold, wrong)
   • 凍る kooru (= "to freeze", verb)
   • 涼しい suzushii (= "cool/refreshing", weather)