人 Kanji: Meaning, Readings and Stroke Order

人: person; human; people. JLPT N5; 2 strokes.

Readings

On readings

ジン、ニン

Kun readings

ひと

Romaji

jin, nin, hito

Study notes

人 indicates the person, the human being. It is one of the most frequent kanji and appears in many compounds.

On reading: ジン forms nationalities and origins (イタリア人, Italian; 日本人=にほんじん, Japanese) and many formal compounds: 人生 (じんせい, life), 人口 (じんこう, population), 人工 (じんこう, artificial). ニン appears with numbers to count people (三人=さんにん, three people; 何人=なんにん, how many people) and in words such as 人気 (にんき, popularity), 人間 (にんげん, human being), 人形 (にんぎょう, doll).

Kun reading: ひと is the everyday noun (あの人, that person). In compounds it can become びと, as in 旅人 (たびびと, traveler). 人々 (ひとびと) means 'people, the people'.

Special readings: 一人 (ひとり, one person) and 二人 (ふたり, two people) do not use ニン; from three onwards one returns to counting with ニン (三人=さんにん, 四人=よにん). They are also read as whole words: 大人 (おとな, adult), 素人 (しろうと, amateur), 玄人 (くろうと, expert) and 仲人 (なこうど, marriage broker).

Remember: as a left-side component of other kanji, 人 assumes the reduced form 亻, as in 休, 何 and 使.

Example words

• 人々 (ひとびと) — people; the public
• 日本人 (にほんじん) — Japanese person
• 三人 (さんにん) — three people
• 人 (ひと) — person
• 一人 (ひとり) — one person; alone
• 人 (と) — person (historical reading not used in ordinary modern Japanese)

Example sentences

あの人は誰ですか。

ano hito wa dare desu ka.

Who is that person?

Stroke order

Follow the steps in order. Each new stroke is highlighted.

Stroke paths: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0. Sequential diagrams derived from the original paths.