Grade One Kanji 12: 先 早 草 足 村

This is the 12th part in a series to learn the 80 characters Japanese students learn the first year in elementary school. The 5 characters in this post are below:

先 早 草 足 村

The last post in this series is Grade One Kanji Part 11: 夕 石 赤 千 川

先 (さき、せん) : Tip, Ahead

先 shows up in words that express being ahead. So, for example, earlier in time, forward in space, the future, ahead in priority or importance, and so on.

先生 (せんせい) : Teacher
先日 (せんじつ) : The other day, a few days ago
ゆう先 (ゆうせん) : Priority

早 (はや(い)、そう) : Early

早い (はやい) is an adjective for early. The kanji means early as in being early in the day, early for an appointment, being quick to act, or early in a period of time.

早ちょう (そうちょう) : Early Morning
早きゅう (そうきゅう) : Urgent
早おき (はやおき) : Waking up early

草 (くさ、そう) : Grass

草 or in hiragana くさ is one way to say grass in Japanese. You can use the character in multi-kanji words often to express the meaning of plants and vegetation.

草はら (くさはら) : Grass field
ざっ草 (ざっそう) : Weed
し草 (しぐさ) : Gesture

足 (あし、そく) : Foot, Leg

The character 足 (そく) appears in words for feet, or sometimes movement by foot. あし is the word in Japanese for leg and for foot.

まん足 (まんぞく) : Satisfied
右足 (みぎあし) : Right leg
ふ足 (ふそく) : Lack

村 (むら、そん) : Village

村 is むら and means village.

ちょう村 (ちょうそん) : Municipalities
き村 (きむら) : Kimura (Surname)
のう村 (のうそん) : Farming Village, Rural village

Resources

Japanese Ministry of Education