Yet another only-in-Japanese type of problem : Synonyms where the kanji look as physically similar as their meanings! “Hey, a few foreigners managed to suss out the difference in the meanings of these synonyms. We can’t let that slide. . . why don’t we make them look almost identical too?? That’ll slow ‘em down . . .IN YOUR FACE, FOREIGNERS!!!”
Classic ILL PAIRS ? Here’s a few:
削 (ｗｈｉｔｔｌｅ ｄｏｗｎ) /消 (ｅｒａｓｅ)
福 (good luck) / 富 ( get rich )
近 (close) /辺 (around here)
王 (king) / 主 (master)
妻 ( wife) / 婦 – (housewife)
Unlike most of these WARNING TAGS, learning ill pairs doesn’t really help you in any way. But it’s so fucked up, I had to make a list of them. I guess you could show the list to your Japanese teacher and try to get her to apologize personally to you.
consult the appendix.
KANJIDAMAGE