JLPT N5 Kanji – 天 – ten

This is 5-Minute Kanji, and today, we will go over an apocalyptic kanji: the kanji for heaven.

Mnemonic:
Is it AMEgeddon? Is this large saucer from HEAVEN? No matter, my magic TENt will protect me.

Onyomi:

テン
ten

Kunyomi:

あま、あめ
ama, ame

The kanji 天 started off in ancient Chinese as a rudimentary stick figure. Over time, the head flattened out and became a horizontal line. You can kind of think of it as an angel with it’s arms outstretched to embrace you. It is actually used in the word for angel, 天使てんし. You will most likely only ever see the てん reading of this kanji. あま is used in some older words or place names.

Mnemonic Factory

This is visually simple. It resembles a stick figure with a strange, long, flat head. You can also think of it as someone with outstretched arms looking into the heavens to see a long, stretched-out cloud. Some people even visualize it as the bottom part being an arrow up into the heavens. The space between the two lines is Earth, and then above that is heaven. For the master mnemonic, I visualize someone staring into the heavens at a flying saucer because I’m weird like that. Maybe an alternative mnemonic would be a guy with a hat of TENnis balls that act as ARMAr (armor) against the aliens in the heavens above.

We have the テン sound for the onyomi. Obviously, ten as in the number, immediately comes to mind, but you can also use TENt, or TENnis to make a mnemonic. You can imagine all the famous TENnis players in heaven.

For kunyomi readings, あま and あめ, you have fewer choices, but these are also rarely used. You can use AMA-or (armor), phAMA (phrama), or AMAze. Armor is the most visual and so best suitable for a mnemonic. You could add armor to anything really – armored tennis balls, an armored tent, etc

Example Words

How about a few example words where this kanji is used?

Onyomi

Let’s take a look at some of the most common words that use 川:

• 天気（てんき） “weather”
• 天国（てんごく） “heaven”*
• 天候（てんこう） “climate”*
• 天然（てんねん） “natural, untouched, innate”*
• 楽天（らくてん） “optimism, famous e-commerce company”*

*Not on the N5
You will most likely only see 天気 on the N5 test. However Rakuten, 楽天, is very commonly used in Japan.

Kunyomi

Let’s take a look at some of the most common words that use 天:

• 天の川（あまのがわ） “milky way”*

*Not on the N5
Again, this is less commonly used. You will most likely only see it in place names or special terms.

Commonly confused with

Story Review

Can you remember the story from the beginning? Let’s give it a try and yell out the words that are missing.

Is it ___geddon? Is this large saucer from ______? No matter, my magic ___t will protect me.

Perfect? Let’s give it another try.

Is it ___geddon? Is this large saucer from ______? No matter, my magic ___t will protect me.

Word Review

Can you read these? I’ll give you the kanji and please yell out the reading for each word

天気

天国*

天候*

天然*

天の川*

*Not N5 Word

That’s it for the kanji for time. Please let me know in the comments below if you have any questions. If you’d like to learn more kanji, hit the subscribe button and hit the bell mark to get a notification every time I send out a new video. Also, be sure to check out my other 5 Minute Kanji videos.