先ず First Of All

Meaning

Primary

First Of All

Alternatives

To Start With, Firstly, To Begin With

Word Type

adverb

Explanation

The kanji means previous. This is an adverb version of that word. It's a little thing you can begin sentences with. You can't start your sentences with "previous" but you can start it with "First of all" or "to start with."

This is usually written without kanji though, so keep that in mind.

Reading

まず

Explanation

Since this word consists of a kanji with hiragana attached, you can bet that it will use the kun'yomi reading. In fact, the reading for this word is very rare, and kind of an exception. We'll use a mnemonic that uses both the kanji part and the hiragana attachment part.

First of all and to start with, you have to make it through this maze (まず).

Context

Common Word Combinations

• 先ず〜

  先ずやる

  to do something first

  先ずかんがえる

  to think first

  先ず見る

  to look first

• 先ずは〜

  先ずは、テレビ

  first the TV

  先ずは、ふじ山

  Mt. Fuji first

  先ずは、かたづけ

  clean up first

Context Sentences

先ず、トマトを切ります。

First, cut the tomatoes.

先ずは、生ビール。それから、ごはん。

First, draft beer. Then, rice.

先ずはもっとデートしてからプロポーズしたら？

Why don't you date a little more first, and then propose?

Kanji Composition

1. 先

   せん Previous