気 – What Does Ki mean, and How it is used in Japanese

気き Is a word with many meanings and at the same time not really a word. It can be used in several different ways and is one of the most common Kanji characters in Japanese. It is used as a part of many words and used it several expressions.

Attempts to Translate it

気 can be translated in many ways as some sort of cognitive state, the atmosphere, or some kind of energy. So, 気 is used to refer to emotions, attention, desires, or several other types of psychological states or interactions between people. Here are some more examples.

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Personality Traits

気 is used in a few expressions to show personality traits.

気が小ちいさい　→　Timid

気が大おおきい　→　Generous

気が短みじい　→　Impatient

気が長ながい　→　Patient

Motivation and desires

If you want to express motivation for doing something you could use やる気. This can be used to show you have the motivation to do something or even just the intention. You can use 気 after any verb also to show that you have an intention to do whatever the action is. So if you want to show you don’t have any intention to clean, you could say:

掃除そうじする気がない　→　I don’t feel like cleaning

Or, if you want to say you don’t intend on stopping:

買かい物ものに行いく気がない　→　I don’t feel like shopping

Depending on the context though you could translate both as, I’m not going to clean, I don’t want to go shopping, or whatever. 

Being Perceptive of people

A few phrases are also used to show perceiving the emotions or current situation you are in. If you say 気を遣つかう This can mean paying consideration to someone else, guess what they may be feeling or thinking and adjusting your behavior.

Attention

気 also tells you if you are paying attention or not in certain phrases. 

気を付ける　→　to be careful

気が散る　→　to get distracted

Many other expressions with 気

There are several words that exist using 気. Like the words already used above expressions with 気　in it all have unique meanings that can not be known just from looking at the word.

One difficult to translate word is 気が合あう. This expresses people getting along with each other or having matching temperaments. Another word that is common which is not as hard to translate is 気が変かわる which means to change one’s mind.

Conclusion

Don’t get caught up on knowing specifically what 気 means. Nobody really does. Instead, You can learn expressions or words that use it. Doing so you will get a feel for it more than having a set translation in your head.

If you are interested in learning Japanese I have reviewed what I consider the best resource for Japanese Grammar below:

Resources

• 気 (Weblio)