Part 2 of the Everyday Kanji series is all about “fruit”.  At grocery stores in Japan, some of these Kanji’s are listed in the sign.  Most often, Kanji’s are mentioned next to hiragana or Katakana.  It definitely doesn’t hurt to learn these Kanji’s. Perhaps you can start with your favorite fruits below. Most the fruit names that we use in Japanese are Gairaigo (外来語、がいらいご) which is sort of a “loan word” that came from another language, such as English. You will notice below that the way we pronounce them are almost identical or very similar to English. We sometimes pronounce these based on transliteration of original English words.  For example, “Melon”, “Lemon”, “Banana”, “Kiwi”  are one of the Gairaigo’s that has very similar pronunciation as English.

 

苺 (Ichigo,  いちご、イチゴ) – Strawberry

林檎 (Ringo, りんご、 リンゴ) – Apple

檸檬 (Lemon, れもん、 レモン) – Lemon

蜜柑 (Mikan, みかん、 ミカン) – Orange

葡萄 (Budo, ぶどう、ブドウ) – Grape

桜桃 (Sakuranbo, さくらんぼ、サクランボ) – Cherry

甘蕉 (Banana, ばなな、バナナ) – Banana

甜瓜 (Melon, めろん、 メロン) – Melon

杏子 (Anzu, あんず、アンズ) – Apricots

無花果 (Ichijiku, いちじく、イチジク) – Fig

彌猴桃 (Kiui, きうい、キウイ) – Kiwi fruit

甘橙 (Orenji, おれんじ、 オレンジ) – Orange

柚子 (Yuzu, ゆず、ユズ) – Pomelo

茘枝 (Reishi,れいし、 レイシ) – Lai chi fruit

柘榴 (Zakuro, ざくろ、ザクロ)- Pomegranate

鳳梨 (pineapple, ぱいなっぷる、パイナップル) – pineapple

梨 (Nashi,なし、 ナシ ) – Pear

桃 (Momo, もも、モモ) – Peach

柿 (Kaki, かき、 カキ )-persimmon

西瓜 (Suika,すいか、スイカ) – Watermelon

酸桃 (Sumomo, すもも、 スモモ) – Plum

 

Do you have any other series of Kanji’s that you would like me to cover in this blog? If you do, share with me in the comment section, I will try to incorporate your request into upcoming posts! It’s always nice to hear from readers to see what they are most interested in!  Enjoy learning Japanese!