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How to say 'Vegetable' in Japanese | 菜

Wondering how to say 'Vegetable' in Japanese? You're in the right place!

The Japanese word for Vegetable is 'Sai', written as 菜 in Japanese.'Vegetable' in hiragana is さい.

    word

    Meaning

    Vegetable

    Reading

    さい

    sai

    Kanji

    Vegetable

    Explanation

    The Japanese suffix '菜 (さい)' refers to 'vegetable' and is commonly used in the names of vegetables or dishes containing vegetables. It is often attached to the name of a specific vegetable to denote its type. For example: spinach is called 'ほうれん草 (ほうれんそう)' where '草 (そう)' also means 'grass' or 'herb', but '菜' is used in other contexts. Example sentences: I like vegetable dishes「野菜料理が好きです」(やさいりょうりがすきです). This soup has a lot of vegetables「このスープには野菜がたくさん入っています」(このスープにはやさいがたくさんはいっています). The suffix can also be used in compound words to specify a type of vegetable, such as '白菜 (はくさい)' which means 'Chinese cabbage'.

    Part Of Speech

    suffix

    Kanji JLPT

    N2

    Kanji Grade

    4

    Frequency

    4245

    Composition

    kanji

    Handwriting

Kanji in the Word

This word contains 1 kanji character:

  • kanji

    Meaning

    Vegetable

Words Related to Through the Kanji

These 2 Words contain the Kanji 菜 as well.

  • word

    野菜

    Meaning

    Vegetable

  • word

    白菜

    Meaning

    Napa cabbage

Learn the Word

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What does 'Sai' (菜) mean?

'Sai' means 'Vegetable' .

To help you master this word, here's an interactive lesson where you'll practice its readings and meanings.