少年

しょうねん

boy

Mnemonic

A small quantity of years, which is all a boy is. Show しょう Nan ねん the report. The word turns up on the news and in manga titles and almost nowhere in speech: しょうねん.

Worth knowing

少女しょうじょ is the girl. Both are written words rather than what you would call a child to their face.

Built from

少

few, a little

小 small with one more stroke slicing a bit off the corner.

年

year

Originally 禾 grain over a person carrying it, one harvest, one year.

Words sharing these kanji

少し a bit, a little while 少女 girl 少ない few, little もう少し a little more, a bit more 少なくとも at least 多少 a little, somewhat 少々 a little, a few 毎年 every year 今年 this year 去年 last year 来年 next year 年 counter for years

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Emaki is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, Kaishi 1.5k or its authors. The word, reading and meaning come from the Kaishi 1.5k deck, used with their permission. The mnemonic, the note and the kanji breakdown are original work, published under CC BY-SA 4.0.