Meaning

Primary

To Remain Behind

Alternatives

To Remain, To Stay Behind

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 remainder, so the verb vocab version is "to remainder." Let's make that sound better: to remain behind.

Reading

のこる
  • 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: You decide to remain behind. Everyone else leaves, and you think you're alone. Then, someone knocks (のこ) on the door. Your heart jumps in your throat. They knock again.

Context

Patterns of Use

Common Word Combinations

  • 手元に残る

    to remain in one's possession

    思い出に残る

    to remain in one's memory

    心に残る

    to remain in one's heart

Context Sentences

自分がミステリアスだと思う人は、ここに残ってください。

Please stay behind if you think you're mysterious.

私たちはポートランドに向けて出発したが、コウイチはまだ日本に残っていました。

We left for Portland, but Koichi remained behind in Japan.

これは、今までにない最高の日本語学習教材として、歴史に残るでしょう。

This will go down in history as the best Japanese learning material ever.

Kanji Composition