狭い

Pattern visualization

Examples

1. この部屋は狭いです。▶ —
   This room is narrow.
2. 日本のアパートは狭いです。▶ —
   Japanese apartments are small/narrow.

Collocations

Mnemonic

せまい — 狭い, Yamato. An i-adjective. The opposite of 広い hiroi. A staple word for describing Tokyo's housing ── Japanese urban homes are famously small, so 狭いアパート (a cramped apartment) has nearly frozen into a fixed phrase. The metaphor moves from space to mind ── 心が狭い (a narrow heart = petty), 視野が狭い (a narrow field of vision = narrow-minded). Exactly symmetric with 広い's 心が広い / 視野が広い ── the two adjectives face each other like mirrors across body, space, and character. The kanji 狭 stays almost entirely in kun-reading in daily use; the onyomi appears only in scholarly words. The Korean reading hyeop is sister to the onyomi きょう.

Quick check

1. "Petty / narrow-minded"?

   • 心が狭い kokoro ga semai (idiom)
   • 心が小さい (= "small heart", uncommon)
   • 心が低い (= "low heart", wrong)
   • 心が悪い (= "bad heart", different — wicked)