Meaning

Primary

To Be Reflected

Alternative

To Be Projected

Word Type

intransitive verb, godan verb

Explanation

This word consists of kanji with hiragana attached. Because the hiragana ends with an sound, you know this word is a verb. The kanji itself means reflect. The verb vocab version means to be reflected. You're not doing the reflecting directly. You can remember this by thinking how rude () it is that someone's reflecting your image using a mirror for everyone outside the dressing room to see.

Reading

うつる
  • Kyoko
    (Tokyo accent, female)
  • Kenichi
    (Tokyo accent, male)

Explanation

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:

Your reflection is getting reflected onto the mirror. You don't like it, it doesn't look like you. Impostor reflection! You take a hammer and you 打つ (うつ) it as hard as you can, glass flying everywhere. Then some dubstep starts playing from the broken mirror: うつうつうつうつ.

Context

Patterns of Use

Common Word Combinations

  • テレビに映る

    to be seen on TV

    目に映る

    to see, to be reflected in someone's eyes

    かがみに映る

    to be reflected in the mirror

Context Sentences

スクリーンに社内用しりょうが映っています。

The internal company document is being projected on the screen.

鏡に映った自分のかおを見て、「なんて美しいんだ」と毎日思っています。

Looking at my own face reflected in the mirror I feel "how beautiful my face is" every day.

コウイチは湖の水面に映る美しい山に感動し、ホロリと涙を流した。

A tear rolled down Koichi’s cheek when he saw the beautiful mountains reflected on the surface of the lake.

Kanji Composition