In this lesson, we’re going to look at twenty false friends between Chinese logographic characters and Japanese kanji. Because the Japanese concept of kanji has its origins in the more complicated, Chinese traditional characters, many kanji do indeed have the same or similar meanings to the Chinese characters from which they were borrowed. As with any pair of languages with a shared linguistic history, however, you need to be especially careful of false friends. In particular, you should be mindful of Chinese-Japanese false friends when writing. False friends are much less of an issue in spoken Chinese and Japanese because the false friend characters usually have entirely different pronunciations in their respective languages.

 

 

Character(s)	Chinese Pronunciation	Chinese Meaning	Japanese Pronunciation	Japanese Meaning
暗算	Ànsuàn	Plot, scheme	Anzan	Mental arithmetic
吃る	Chīru	Eat	Domoru	Stutter
大丈夫	Dàzhàngfū	Real man, gentleman, man of honor (lit. “big man”)	Daijōbu	All right, okay
方面	Fāngmiàn	Aspect	Hōmen	Direction
非常	Fēicháng	Very much	Hijō	Emergency
怪我	Guàiwǒ	Blame me	Kega	Injury
娘	Niang	Mother	Musume	Daughter
切手	Qièshǒu	Cut one’s hand	Kitte	Stamp
親友	Qīnyǒu	Friends and relatives in general	Shin’yū	A close friend
侍	Shì	To serve, wait on, attend upon	Samurai	Samurai, warrior
手紙	Shǒuzhǐ	Toilet paper	Tegami	Letter
私	Sī	Personal, private, selfish	Watashi	I
汤 湯	Tāng	Soup	Yu	Hot water, hot spring
先生	Xiānshēng	Mr.	Sensei	Doctor, mentor, teacher
下手	Xiàshǒu	Start with (something)	Heta	Awkward, clumsy, inept, unskilled
邪魔	Xiémó	Demon, devil	Jama	Hindrance
演出	Yǎnchū	To act in a play, show, performance	Enshutsu	Director, producer of a show/play
有難う	Yǒunánu	Difficulty, hardship, calamity	Arigatō	Thank you
约束 約束	Yuēshù	Constraint, bind, restrict	Yakusoku	A promise
丈夫	Zhàngfū	Husband	Jōbu	Sturdy, strong, robust