Similar Words in Japanese and Chinese
You may already know Zì/Hànzì 字/汉字 means Chinese characters, but do you know Japanese Kanji, also literally meaning “Chinese character” or “Han character”? The term Han refers to Chinese (language) and Han ethnic group. Kanji are ideographic or logographic characters used in Japan, mostly borrowed directly from Chinese. They are taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese.
Chinese characters first came to Japan on official seals, letters, swords, coins, mirrors, and other decorative items imported from China. Some Japanese Kanji look like Chinese characters but have different meanings in Japanese, such as, 湯 means soup in Chinese and hot spring in Japanese. Some Kanji words share the same characters and meaning as Chinese and also have very similar pronunciations.
Please find the list of similar words in Chinese and Japanese below.
| 英文 English |
简体中文 Simplified Chinese |
繁體字 Traditional Chinese |
拼音 Pinyin |
日语 Japanese |
| telephone | 电话 | 電話 | diànhuà | 電話 |
| oolong tea | 乌龙茶 | 烏龍茶 | wūlóngchá | ウーロン茶 |
| matcha | 抹茶 | 抹茶 | mǒchá | 抹茶 |
| Tofu | 豆腐 | 豆腐 | dòufu | 豆腐 |
| Grape | 葡萄 | 葡萄 | pútao | 葡萄 |
| natto | 纳豆 | 納豆 | nàdòu | 納豆 |
| library | 图书馆 | 圖書館 | túshū guǎn | 図書館 |
| ramen | 拉面 | 拉麵 | lāmiàn | 拉麺 |
| sun | 太阳 | 太陽 | tàiyáng | 太陽 |
| time | 时间 | 時間 | shíjiān | 時間 |
| magazine | 杂志 | 雜誌 | zázhì | 雑誌 |
| in love | 恋爱 | 戀愛 | liàn'ài | 恋愛 |
| difficulty | 困难 | 困難 | kùnnán | 困難 |
| garden | 公园 | 公園 | gōngyuán | 公園 |
| prepare | 准备 | 準備 | zhǔnbèi | 準備 |
| free | 自由 | 自由 | zìyóu | 自由 |
| repair | 修理 | 修理 | xiūlǐ | 修理 |
| Cheers | 干杯 | 乾杯 | gānbēi | 乾杯 |
| courage | 勇气 | 勇氣 | yǒngqì | 勇気 |
| impression | 印象 | 印象 | yìnxiàng | 印象 |
| future | 将来 | 將來 | jiānglái | 将来 |
| arithmetic | 算数 | 算數 | suànshù | 算数 |
| mountaineering | 登山 | 登山 | dēngshān | 登山 |
Click to play the Mandarin Chinese audio version of the word list.
Click to play the Japanese audio version of the word list.
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