変 – unusual, change, strange

9 strokesTaught in grade 4#238 in newspaper frequencyN5 vocabulary

The kanji 変 means unusual, change, strange. Its on’yomi (Chinese-derived reading) is ヘン (hen); its kun’yomi (native Japanese reading) is か.わる、か.わり、か.える (kawaru, kawari, kaeru). It is written with 9 strokes, under radical 夂 (no. 34).

Stroke order

Stroke order from KanjiVG. Practise others with the stroke order lookup.

Readings

Type	Reading	Romaji
On’yomi	ヘン	hen
Kun’yomi	か.わる	kawaru
Kun’yomi	か.わり	kawari
Kun’yomi	か.える	kaeru

A dot separates the kanji’s part from the okurigana (kana written after it), e.g. まな.ぶ → 学ぶ.

Radical and components

Radical: 夂 (Kangxi radical 34). Components: 亠・夂.

Words using 変

大変たいへんvery変へんstrange変えるかえるto change変わるかわるto change変化へんかchange変更へんこうchange相変わらずあいかわらずas usual一変いっぺんcomplete change変革へんかくchange変遷へんせんchange変動へんどうchange

Example sentences

１日中歩き回って大変疲れた。

I am dead tired from walking around all day.

Tatoeba #235685

あえて言いますが、もし我々がそんなことをすれば大変な誤りを犯すことになると私は思います。

At the risk of sticking my neck out, I think that if we do that, we're making a big, big mistake.

Tatoeba #234527

もし期限切れになったら、大変なことになるよ。

There will be hell to pay if I don't make this deadline.

Tatoeba #193739

Sources: KANJIDIC2 (EDRDG, CC BY-SA 4.0), KanjiVG (CC BY-SA 3.0), Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). About the data.