去 · to leave, past

JLPT N4 kanji. Readings, meaning, and how the character is built.

去 means to leave, past. It is a JLPT N4 kanji written in 5 strokes, read さる or きょ. It is built from 2 parts: 土 (soil, earth), 厶 (I, myself). It appears in 去年 (last year) and 消去 (elimination / erasing).

筆順 · Stroke order

去 is written in 5 strokes, in the order numbered below. Order matters: it is what makes handwriting legible, and it is how the character is looked up in a paper dictionary.

解字 · What it is made of

去 breaks into 2 parts.

• 土 semantic soil, earth · top carries the meaning
• 厶 semantic I, myself · bottom carries the meaning

Words that use 去

Word	Reading	Meaning
去年	きょねん	last year
消去	しょうきょ	elimination / erasing
立ち去る	たちさる	to leave / to depart

Built from the same parts

These use 土 or 厶 too. The part keeps its job from one character to the next, which is what makes it worth learning once.

• 赤red
• 場place
• 地ground
• 堂public chamber
• 社company
• 走run
• 埼cape
• 私private

Practise 去

Sumi teaches the character before it tests you: stroke order animated, the breakdown above shown as a pull-apart X-ray, then spaced review. Free, in your browser, no signup.

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