JLPT N5 practice ·

Writing (Orthography)

The underlined word is in hiragana: pick how it’s written in kanji or katakana. Watch out for look-alike kanji (休 / 体) and katakana twins (シ / ツ, ソ / ン).

120 questions. Practice them in sets, with the explanation after each answer.

Sample question

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
Answer and explanation

1. せんせい (teacher) is written 先生: 先 (ahead, before) + 生 (life, birth). Read kanji by kanji, it says 'born before': someone who walked the road ahead of you.

Trick: 生 (せい) is also in 学生 (student). Learn 先生 and 学生 together: the one who teaches and the one who learns.