20 Similar-Looking Kanji

I, personally, am a huge fan of kanji (the Chinese characters used in written Japanese). They fascinate me to no end. Their presence makes a sentence more vivid, more interesting and more personal. It brings meaning to life, and gives the sentence visual flow. Each of these seemingly countless glyphs is as mysterious as they are magical, with history and nuance stretching back further in time than the entire English language.

However, I do understand the plight of the Japanese learner (I was once one, too, and in all honesty I still am), and admittedly, unless you’ve studied them for a long time, it can be hard to understand kanji’s beauty and allure.

There are too many of them.
They’re unnecessary for communication.
They’re too hard to write.
They have several pronunciations.
They have multiple meanings.

All of the above are common complaints made by Japanese language students, and each of them is quite true. But despite their fundamental shortcomings, you can’t learn Japanese without them, you can’t live (well) in Japan without them, and they aren’t going to just magically disappear.

So you need to push and discipline yourself, but once you learn them, you’ll learn to love them.

For this post I’ve collected 10 pairs of kanji that to untrained eyes might look almost or exactly the same. My intent is not to discourage learners by highlighting the difficult points of kanji (though there are certainly difficulties…), but rather to spark an interest in kanji by introducing just how subtle and delicate they can be. Hopefully reading this will also save Japanese learners a mistake or two down the line.

1. 人 vs 入

If all you had to rely on to learn these kanji was printed text, you might think that the difference between these kanji is the little spike at the top; you would be wrong. Computer fonts render the character this way, but the true difference between these kanji is which stroke becomes the smaller, supporting leg. (the numbers indicate the stroke order)

2. 千 vs 干

These two kanji highlight not only the difference in stroke direction, but stroke type. The top of 千 is a slash, you lift your writing tool as you end the stroke. The top stroke of 干 is a stop. You stop your brush/pen/pencil completely then lift it and move on to the next stroke. (arrow shows direction of the stroke)

3. 土 vs 士

Occasionally in Japanese the length of a stroke can change the meaning. This particular pair are often used as components of more complex kanji and should definitely be learned early, so that you can be conscious of which one is being used as an element in harder kanji (for example: 売る　圧力　志　堅い)

4. 未 vs 末

Like #3, this pair is also differentiated only by the comparative length of the strokes.

5. 辛 vs 幸

The difference is not quite as subtle as a single stroke direction or stroke length, but keeping this pair straight in your mind (especially when writing) takes some extra effort.

6. 比 vs 北

Like #5, the correct reading and meaning is typically easy enough to figure out from context, but be careful when writing.

7. 綱 vs 網

These two higher level kanji are tricky because the meanings of these two kanji are pretty close. Exercise caution.

8. 瓜 vs 爪

The special shape of this kanji can lure you into a false sense of security with your knowledge. Make sure you know that there are two kanji like this, and which one you’re using.

9. 微 vs 徴

With high stroke-count kanji, there is a tendency to look just long enough to read it and move on. Remember to review this pair from time to time otherwise you will forget which is which.

10. 日 vs 曰

Okay, so 曰 isn’t even a Joyo kanji. But isn’t this amazing? In a nice clean, crisp font you can see a difference, but if handwritten (compare the additional “handwriting” style forms), there is no surefire way to tell them apart without context! Fortunately, 曰 is only used in very high level written Japanese and pretty much always followed by the hiragana く, so I don’t expect that you’ll ever have any problems with their similarity.

If there are any look-alike kanji that you find interesting/frustrating/puzzling, please leave a comment!

17 Responses

I don’t know all kanji yet, but I’ve come across some pretty similar ones already. These are the ones that come to mind:

従 and 徒 look very similar and have similar meanings.
験 and 検 look sort of similar and mean something very similar.
感 and 惑 look quite similar but mean something completely different.

by: snip, Jan 20th at 11:58 am
My favorite example is 拾 and 捨. These are really similar and especially troublesome because the first means “pick up” and the second “throw away” so the meanings are literally opposite.

職 , 識 and 織: also confusing due to similar readings.

by: herman, Feb 24th at 1:17 pm
Just quickly adding the small difference between:

待つ Matsu – To wait　
持つ Motsu – To have
時 Toki, Ji – Time, Hour

Once you learn the radicals the small differences make sense. I recognise the difference by remembering the radicals for Man/Going Man, Hand, and Day. (Three basic Kanji a beginner should already know)

The first (待つ) contains the radical for a going man 「(人)　with a stroke is like the man is moving], so I know it has to do with movement, or the lack of. The second (持つ) contains the radical for a hand　(手), so I remember it’s to possess, or hold. The third (時)　contains the sun (日), so since the sun dictates time, it’s easy~

by: Ash, Jul 3rd at 10:30 pm
Actually I do struggle with 持つ and 待つ a lot (even just know I can’t remember which one I wrote first, and am not sure which is which ^_^).

I don’t really have problems with 時 though, but I do mix them a bit with 特. That’s when I don’t pay enough attention, because reading carefully enough, I usually remember M.Heisig’s teaching : seeing a cow in a Buddhist temple would somehow be “special” indeed

by: Armand, Dec 1st at 2:03 pm
You switched the readings of the kanji for “thousand”.

It should be “chi, SEN”, not “sen, CHI” (since “SEN” is the on reading).

The fact is that the kun reading of this character is used only in special cases (primarily in proper names), so this probably made you do this mistake.

by: Damir, Feb 29th at 1:52 am
嫌 (unpleasant) and 婕 (handsome) have given me some trouble before…

by: Jade, Jul 16th at 5:11 am
録緑

by: Zachary, Mar 12th at 6:39 am
Sora (sky) vs Uru (sell). They basically flip the radicals.

by: Dane, Apr 5th at 12:07 am
猫 and 描… Very similar, totally different meanings…

by: Emil, Jul 24th at 1:56 pm
石 – stone
右 – right (relative direction)

by: Adrian, Jan 6th at 8:22 pm
Once you start to perceive kanji as phonetic+ element, kanjis like 殲 and 懺 stop looking similar.

While some minor differences look insignificant, there is a huge conceptual difference between a line not touching another line, or touching it, or crossing it. Or straight/horizontal vs sloped; or smaller vs larger.

Just think about our alphabet:
ijl1r – basically just one vertical line
uv – sloped vs straight
vy – like 人 vs 入 (in “computer” font), or 己 vs 已
wm – like the left part of 比 vs 北, only mirrored vertically
mn – m is like two n’s
pb – which is the longer stroke?
dq – like 土 vs 士
co – closed/touching vs open, similar two 日 vs 曰
hk

And we’ve got only 26 letters, so why can’t they be less similar? Yet most of these pairs look quite different to our eyes. And physics professors love to confuse their students when they use ij and uv for different quantities – in hand-writing on the black board!

by: blutorange, Feb 8th at 4:11 pm
描 and 猫 look really similar. Kanji is so confusing!(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻)

by: Ellie, Mar 25th at 4:58 pm
Hello I’m sorry I’m a newbe and I cand fimd a character could u help me it looks like に but without the little stick on the side

by: Amai, Jul 28th at 12:43 pm
That would be “ko” : こ

by: Lloyd Vincent, Aug 11th at 8:40 am
Hello! I have an assignment where I need to translate a paragraph, but there’s a kanji I don’t know. I tried looking it up by the radical, but I only found one that is very similar, yet different. If someone could help me, I would greatly appreciate it! The look-alike of the kanji is 匙 , but the one I need has a 八 and a 自with a line on top.

by: Wicca Cat, Mar 10th at 1:34 pm
Personally I’ve been having a bit of trouble differentiating 学 and 字, especially at a glance. Their meanings are pretty different but at least in my case I struggle at telling the difference between 数学 (suugaku, mathematics) and 数字 (suuji, number/numeral) because I look at the first character, determine it has something to do with numbers, then whichever pops into my mind first might be wrong.
I KNOW the difference between the two (the 2 small extra dots on top of 学) but still, like the article said it’s easy to read part of the character and move on.

by: Messy, Apr 26th at 9:38 pm
its weird how there’s no difference between the 分かります and 分 kanjis :/ confuse me sometimes lol

by: Nicole, Apr 28th at 1:59 am