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Kanji · JLPT N5 · Level 6

talk, story

Meaning
talk, story
On reading
Kun reading
Memory hook

言 (words) beside 舌 (tongue). Words plus a tongue: talking. ワ in compounds, はな(す) on its own. 電話 denwa, a telephone.

Words that use 話

to speak
telephone

How to write 話

Stroke order · 13 strokes
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
  1. 1. A short dot.
  2. 2 to 4. Horizontal.
  3. 5. Vertical.
  4. 6. Horizontal, then turn down.
  5. 7. Horizontal.
  6. 8. The sweep down to the left.
  7. 9. Horizontal.
  8. 10 to 11. Vertical.
  9. 12. Horizontal, then turn down.
  10. 13. 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).

話 is taught on day 25 of the kanji course, alongside , with two writing passes and a short quiz.