Kanji · JLPT N5 · Level 7
国 country
- Meaning
- country
- On reading
- コク
- Kun reading
- くに
Memory hook
玉 (jewel) shut inside a border. A treasure inside a border is a country. コク in compounds, くに on its own. It becomes ごく in 外国 gaikoku.
Words that use 国
国
くに
country
外国
がいこく
foreign country
How to write 国
Stroke order · 8 strokes
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
- 1. Vertical.
- 2. Horizontal, then turn down.
- 3. Horizontal.
- 4. Vertical.
- 5 to 6. Horizontal.
- 7. A short dot.
- 8. Horizontal.
Stroke data from KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
General rules
- Top to bottom, left to right.
- Horizontal strokes before crossing vertical ones (十 = horizontal, then vertical).
- Outside before inside - but close a box last (口).
- A vertical that passes all the way through comes last (中).
- Left-falling diagonal before right-falling (大).
国 is taught on day 23 of the kanji course, alongside 語 本, with two writing passes and a short quiz.