Onyomi: スイ · Kunyomi: た, たれ, だれ · Meanings: somebody, someone, who
Kanji for somebody, someone, who
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Long ago, this kanji was formed from the parts 言 (speech, words) and 隹 (a short-tailed bird). In ancient writing, birds often represented the sound of calling or voices carried through the air. So 誰 shows someone using speech like a bird’s call — sending their words out, searching for someone, asking “Who are you?” Over time, this image became the kanji for the question word “who.”
誰 combines the idea of speech (言) with a calling bird (隹) — it represents a person’s voice reaching out to identify someone. It’s the feeling of calling out in the distance, asking, “Who’s there?”
Imagine you’re calling someone far away — your words (言) fly like a little bird (隹) trying to find who will answer back. That’s 誰 — your voice searching for “who.”
| Word | Reading | Meaning | Meta |
|---|---|---|---|
| 誰 | だれ | who | common JLPT-N1 JLPT-N5 Pronoun |
| 誰か | だれか | someone, somebody | common JLPT-N3 JLPT-N5 Pronoun |
| 誰にも | だれにも | to anyone, to everyone | common Expressions (phrases, clauses, etc.) |
| 誰彼 | だれかれ | this or that person, anybody, many people | Pronoun |
| 誰しも | だれしも | everyone, anyone | Expressions (phrases, clauses, etc.) |
| 誰何 | すいか | challenging (an unknown person), asking a person's identity | Noun, Suru verb, Transitive verb |
| 誰もかも | だれもかも | everyone | Noun |
| 誰にも増して | だれにもまして | more than anybody | Expressions (phrases, clauses, etc.), Adverb (fukushi) |
| 誰一人 | だれひとり | (not) anyone, (not) a single person, no one, nobody | Expressions (phrases, clauses, etc.) |
| 誰も | だれも | everyone, anyone | common Expressions (phrases, clauses, etc.) |