The kanji for friend is two hands (友)

The kanji for friend, 友 (tomo), is two hands. The ナ at the top left and the 又 under it are both drawings of a right hand, so 友 is two people’s hands together. It’s the kanji in 友達 (tomodachi), the everyday word for a friend.

What the kanji say

又 (mata) means “again” today, but it began as a drawing of a right hand. It’s the hand in the lower right of 友.

ナ is the same right hand, written in a different shape. You’ll see it at the top of 右 (migi), right, where the hand sits over 口, a mouth, and at the top of 有 (yuu), to have, which shows a hand holding a piece of meat. 左 (hidari), left, has a shape that looks the same, but there it was once a left hand.

友 (tomo, yuu) puts the two hands together. And since both are right hands, they can’t belong to one person: one hand is yours, and the other is your friend’s.

Where it really comes from

This time the story is the real history. The oldest forms of 友, carved more than 3,000 years ago, show two right hands. The Shuowen Jiezi, a Chinese dictionary from around 100 CE, describes it simply as made of two 又, and Wiktionary sums it up as “two right hands meeting in friendship”. 又 also gave 友 its sound in Chinese, where the two words are pronounced almost alike.

The video’s “held together” is one way to picture it. Holding, shaking or helping each other: the oldest forms don’t say which, only that there are two hands.

How to use it

• 友達と映画を見に行きます。

  Tomodachi to eiga o mi ni ikimasu.

  I'm going to see a film with a friend.

• 彼は私の親友です。

  Kare wa watashi no shin'yuu desu.

  He's my best friend.

• 大学の友人です。

  Daigaku no yuujin desu.

  This is a friend from university.

• 日本で友達がたくさんできた。

  Nihon de tomodachi ga takusan dekita.

  I made lots of friends in Japan.

• 友達 (tomodachi) is the everyday word. 達 (tachi) is a plural ending, but 友達 can mean one friend or several.
• 友人 (yuujin) is the formal one. It means the same, but it suits writing, speeches, or introducing a friend to your boss.
• 親友 (shin’yuu) is a close friend, the one you’d call your best friend.
• To make friends is 友達ができる (tomodachi ga dekiru), literally “friends come into being”. To become friends with someone is 友達になる (tomodachi ni naru).
• 友 (tomo) on its own is used mostly in writing and in set phrases.

Words with the same kanji

Remember it

Two right hands can’t belong to one person. 友 is your hand and a friend’s: ナ and 又, reaching for each other.

The kanji in this lesson

Tap Draw it to watch the stroke order. Numbers show where each stroke starts.

Draw it

Sources

• Wiktionary: 友 (glyph origin)
• Dong Chinese: 友
• Dong Chinese: 右

Written by the Sumi team with the help of AI, then checked against JMdict and KANJIDIC2. How we write lessons. Spotted a mistake? Email brightsmilesolutionssupport@gmail.com.