Kanji Lesson 7

早 (ソウ、はや.い) 

Early, Fast

By Train.bird (Flickr)
CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Notice that this character is a part of morning (朝), showing only the sun (日) and the plants below (the grass) (十). If we wake up early and get to the field fast, we can witness the moment where the sun just rose from behind the grass, not even "touching" the leaves of the trees yet.

• 早朝 (そうちょう) Early morning

火 (カ、ひ)

Fire

By mygothlaundry (Flickr)
CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Picture of a person (人) juggling fire (the two dots at the left hand and right hand side). 

• 花火 (はなび) Firework

中 (チュウ、なか、うち)

Middle, Inside

Picture of a line going through the inside of a rectangle right at the middle.

• 中学 (ちゅうがく) Junior High School

虫 (チュウ、キ、むし) 

Insect

By AI2 (WikiMedia Commons)
CC BY 3.0

Consist of middle (中) and two additional lines below representing a leg. Insects are animals that have legs in the middle of their body. Unlike most mammals that have 4 legs (2 front legs and 2 hind legs), most insects have 6 legs (2 front legs, 2 middle legs, and 2 hind legs).

力 (リョク、リキ、ちから) 

Power, Strength

Picture of someone showing his muscular left arm, which represents the meaning of strength / power.

• 入力 (にゅうりょく) Input / Data entry
• 学力 (がくりょく) Scholarship / Knowledge / Literary ability

刀 (トウ、かたな) 

Sword, Knife

Picture of a sword hilt.

By crowolf (Flickr)
CC BY-NC-SA 2.0