Small

by Nao

chii-sai, shō, ko, o

Chii-sai is “small.” Sai is in hiragana. The small size is shō. An elementary school is shōgakkō. An elementary school student is shōgaku sei.  Shōshin means timidity.

If you talk about sizes and want to mean, “large, medium, and small,” say “dai, chū, shō.” However, at the counter of, for example, a fast-food restaurant in Japan, you can order food by saying, “raaji,” “midiamu,” or, “sumōru.” As for clothing, you can say, “esu,” “emu,” or “eru” to mean S, M, or L.

Small things have ko as a prefix. A small bird is kotori. A pebble is koishi. A lane is komichi. Nagging is kogoto. A dwarf is kobito. Tenant farming is kosaku.
* A puppy (koinu) and a kitten (koneko) have another character for “ko.” It means a child.

First, draw the vertical stroke with an upward turn, and then draw the sweeping stroke on the left-hand side. The last stroke is the dot on the right.

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