To Hit, To Touch, To Guess Correctly, To Guess Right, To Be Right, To Hit The Target
Intransitive verb and Godan verb
あたる
人に石が当たったらどうするんだ。
If a person was hit with a stone, what would you do?
まんいんでん車で、手がとなりの女のしりに当たってしまい、ちかんにまちがえられたらどうしようと不あんでいっぱいになった。
In a packed train, my hand accidentally touched the butt of the woman next to me and I was so worried I’d be mistaken for a molester.
自分の予想が当たって、嬉しいです。
I’m glad my guess was right.
You know this is a verb because it ends with an う sound. The kanji for this word is right or success, so what's the verb form of that? Turns out it's a ton of things. Like, a crazy amount of things. I tried narrowing it down for you, but it will still be a lot. This word tends to be about getting an answer right. As in, to guess correctly or to be on target. It means many other things too, but I think these are the two meanings you'll see the most, so focus on those.
Since this word consists of a kanji with hiragana attached, you can bet that it will use the kun'yomi reading. You didn't learn that reading with this kanji, so here's a mnemonic to help you to remember the あ portion.
You need to guess the correct answer. What do you choose? You guess A (あ) and hope it's right. Turns out you were right on the money. Well done! Imagine yourself winning a fabulous prize.