他
た · ta · JLPT N3 · noun
other (esp. places and things)
他 = person 亻 + 也: a person beside you, so someone or something other
The 亻 on the left is the person radical. Chinese uses 他 to mean he, that other person. Japanese widened it to anything else, as in 他の (ta no, other) and その他 (sono ta, and the rest).
他 — person radical 亻 + 也
Originally written 它, depicting a snake, and used as a general third-person pronoun. The person radical 亻 was later added to specify a human referent, while 也 serves as the phonetic component giving the sound tā.
ほか · hoka · JLPT N3 · noun
other (esp. places and things)
他 = 亻 person + 也: another person, so other, someone else
The left part 亻 is the person radical. 也 began as a scribe's variant of 它 (it, that one), so 他 is that other one. As ほか it means other things or places, e.g. ほかの店 another shop. The same kanji is read た in 他人 (stranger).
他 — person radical 亻 + 也
Originally written 它, depicting a snake, and used as a general third-person pronoun. The person radical 亻 was later added to specify a human referent, while 也 serves as the phonetic component giving the sound tā.