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How to say "Back" in Japanese

If you are wondering what's the Japanese word for "Back" you've come to the right place!

the Japanese word for "Back" is "Senaka", written in japanese as "背中".

Here's a more detailed explanation:

The Japanese noun '背中 (せなか)' refers to the back of the human body, including the area between the shoulders and the waist. It can be used to describe both the physical back as well as the sense of someone's 'back', as in looking at or facing someone's back. For example: She patted him on the back - (彼女は彼の背中をたたいた). I saw his back as he walked away - (彼が立ち去っていくのを彼の背中を見た).

The Kanji are characters that represent meanings. As you can see, this word is made up of 2 Kanji:

The kanji "背" means "Back" and "Height" and can be read as "Hai", "Se", "Sei" and "Somu". And The kanji "中" means "Center" and can be read as "Naka" and "Chuu".

Now, let's make sure you understand this word the other way around too.

What does "Senaka" mean in japanese?

"Senaka" means "Back" .

To learn more about the kanji in this word, checkout this pages:

What is the Kanji for back and height?What is the Kanji for center?

If you also want to learn how to write this word in Japanese, you can checkout this page:

How to write "Back" in Japanese

To make really sure you learn this word, I've prepared an interactive lesson for you. You are going to learn the readings and meanings of this word and of the characters that comprise it.

But first, you need to know a little bit about Hiragana and Katakana.

Hiragana and katakana are japanese syllabaries, this means that each character represents a syllable.

This are the characters you need to know for this lesson:

The hiragana "は" is read as "ha". The hiragana "い" is read as "i". The hiragana "せ" is read as "se". The hiragana "そ" is read as "so". The hiragana "む" is read as "mu". The hiragana "な" is read as "na". The hiragana "か" is read as "ka". The hiragana "ち" is read as "chi". And The hiragana "う" is read as "u".

About kanji, you need to know that most Kanji have two types of readings: Kunyomi, based on native japanese pronunciation. And onyomi, based on chinese pronunciation.