Kanji · JLPT N5 · Level 4
外 outside
- Meaning
- outside
- On reading
- ガイ
- Kun reading
- そと
Memory hook
夕 (evening) beside 卜 (a divining stick): fortunes were told in the evening, outdoors. ガイ in compounds, そと on its own.
Words that use 外
外
そと
outside
外国
がいこく
foreign country
How to write 外
Stroke order · 5 strokes
1
2
3
4
5
- 1 to 2. The sweep down to the left.
- 3. A short dot at the middle left.
- 4. The vertical through the centre.
- 5. The diagonal down to the right.
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).
外 is taught on day 10 of the kanji course, alongside 間 中, with two writing passes and a short quiz.