To Drink

by Nao

no-mu, in

No-mu is the Japanese verb for “to drink”. My favorite sentence is no-mou, which means, “Let’s drink”. The suffixes mu and mou are okurigana.

Used as a part of compounds, in means to drink. Inryo is something to drink. Inshoku is drinking and eating. With a suffix meaning an industry, inshokugyo means the food industry. With a suffix meaning a store, inshokuten means cafes, restaurants, and taverns.

Drinking sake or any kinds of alcohol is inshu. Drunk driving is inshu unten.

Although this character is a twelve-stroke character, we draw this with thirteen strokes in kaisho style. The left part resembles yesterday’s character, shoku.

When you draw it with a pen, regard the seventh and the eighth strokes as one stroke, and just make an upward turn at the bottom.

1. Begin the left part of the character. Draw the sweeping stroke from the top to the lower left.
2. Draw the elongated dot from the top.
3. Draw the small dot under the umbrella.
4. Draw the right-angled hook.
5. Draw the horizontal stroke inside the rectangle.
6. Draw the horizontal stroke at the bottom of the rectangle.
7. Draw the vertical line from where you start the fourth right-angled hook.
8. Draw the stroke heading toward the dot below the rectangle. Make it narrower when you finish the stroke.
9. Draw the elongated dot.
10. Go back to the top and begin the right part of the character. Draw the sweeping stroke from the center top.
11. Draw the hook. After changing the direction of the brush, make a sweeping stroke.
12. Draw the sweeping stroke from just below the previous stroke.
13. From the middle of the previous stroke, draw the sweeping stroke. Make a hem-like ending by spreading the brush.