Shibamaru & Gen

Kanji #0008

天 means “sky / heaven”

On-yomiテンTEN
  • JLPT N5
  • Grade 1
  • 4 strokes

天 (TEN) means "sky" or "heaven." It is in everyday words like 天気 (TENKI, weather) and 天ぷら (TENPURA).

Watch: Gen and Shibamaru learn 天

The video loads from YouTube when you press play. Open on YouTube

Where 天 comes from

天 is often explained as 大, a person standing with arms out, with a line above the head: the sky above the person.

Stroke order (4 strokes)

  1. 11
  2. 22
  3. 33
  4. 44

Words with 天

  • 天気てんき

    TENKI

    weather

  • 天ぷらてんぷら

    TENPURA

    tempura

  • 天国てんごく

    TENGOKU

    heaven

  • 天才てんさい

    TENSAI

    genius

The part of each word written with 天 is shown in orange. Audio: the readings from our video.

Reading tips

  • In all four words in the video, 天 is read てん (TEN). Once you know it, you can read them all.
  • 天 and 大 (big) differ by one line. 天 has the extra line on top.

In the video

  • Shibamaruどれも よく 見ることばだよYou'll see all of these.
  • Genおぼえたぞ!Got them!

Example sentences

  • きょうは いい 天気ですね。

    KYOU WA II TENKI DESU NE.

    Nice weather today, isn't it?

  • 天ぷらが すきです。

    TENPURA GA SUKI DESU.

    I like tempura.

Keep learning kanji

Stroke order data: KanjiVG © Ulrich Apel, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. The kanji graphics on this page are drawn from KanjiVG data (stroke width and color changed, animated) and are shared under the same license. Level: JLPT N5 is a study guide only; JLPT does not publish an official kanji list.