左 – left

5 strokesTaught in grade 1#630 in newspaper frequencyN5 vocabulary

The kanji 左 means left. Its on’yomi (Chinese-derived reading) is サ、シャ (sa, sha); its kun’yomi (native Japanese reading) is ひだり (hidari). It is written with 5 strokes, under radical 工 (no. 48).

Stroke order

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

Readings

Type	Reading	Romaji
On’yomi	サ	sa
On’yomi	シャ	sha
Kun’yomi	ひだり	hidari

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: 工 (Kangxi radical 48). Components: ノ・一・工.

Words using 左

左ひだりleft左右さゆうleft and right左利きひだりききleft-handedness

Example sentences

そのポールは左に傾いた。

The pole inclined to the left.

Tatoeba #212631

フランスは左に、イギリスは右に揺れているように思われる。

France seems to be swinging left - Britain to the right.

Tatoeba #196996

彼は怒って首を左右に振った。

He gave an angry shake of his head.

Tatoeba #101824

Kanji with the same radical

工差巨巧

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