To Repair, To Fix Something, To Repair Something
Transitive verb and Godan verb
なおす
パソコンがこわれたんですが、直せますか。
My PC broke. Can you fix it?
考え直した方がいいですよ。
You'd better think it through again.
もし壊れていなければ、それを直そうとする必要はないよ。
You don’t need to fix something if it’s not broken.
This word consists of kanji with hiragana attached. Because the hiragana ends with an う sound, you know this word is a verb. The kanji itself means fix so this vocab word means to fix. This is when you're fixing something, as in doing the actual physical action of fixing.
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 have to learn the なお part. Think of it this way. You need to fix something! It's urgent! You have to fix it now! (なお). This will also work with the similar word, 直る, which you'll learn soon if you haven't already.