For example the top of these characters:  
今 -> 人 (ひと)  
全 -> 入 (はいる)  
  
Or the side of these:  
明 -> 月 (つき)  
腹 -> 肉 (にく)  
  
Are there more examples like these?  
How do I know which is which?
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2020-02-18T20:40:31.897
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2020-03-21T13:02:30.480
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kanji radicals
How to tell similar Radicals apart?
> Are there more examples like these?

Another example of a very similar pair is 阝 (おおざと) and 阝 (こざとへん). In this case
the shapes are the same and the big difference is basically that the "hen" one
appears on the left and the other one appears on the right of the kanji. Yet
another one is 匚 (はこがまえ) and 匸 (かくしがまえ), which are distinguished only by a
small shape difference at the top left.

> How do I know which is which?

The good news is that the people who make kanji dictionaries are aware of
these problems and usually index things so that you can find kanji under
either one of the radicals. Perhaps a useful test of which kanji dictionary to
use would be whether the dictionary guides you through this difficulty.
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2020-02-19T00:00:09.993
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2020-02-20T12:41:53.040
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@Mr.Gumba13 If you haven't already, check out [Kanji Alive's 214 Traditional
Radicals](https://kanjialive.com/214-traditional-kanji-radicals/) as well as
their [introduction to Kanji](https://kanjialive.com/introduction-to-kanji/).
According to them, Kanji migrated to Japan over hundreds of years (about 800
years according to their introduction text) which leaves lots of space for
mutations in meaning and corresponding representations. What is fun is that
Kanji are relatively logical, a reason I find them interesting, however, they
are inefficient because, well, it's a complex system to learn. And so is Math,
but Kanji and Math do not share discreteness. A "4" will always represent a
"4", but each Kanji has a history of origin and propagation, which in turn
changes it's meaning, etc. But now, their meaning might be pretty well locked
in by popular usage and language authorities today.

Not all radical systems are the same, but they are close, and they are a good
place to start and to help capture a simple way of categorizing Kanji. But to
use a loose analogy, radicals are kinda like syllables, pre-, post-, have
meaning but not fully realized. Study and use them, but they will not lead you
to all the answers.
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2020-02-19T17:18:49.853
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2020-02-19T17:18:49.853
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