借りる
かりる · kariru · JLPT N5 · verb-ichidan
to borrow
🚗🔑 sounds like car-ee-roo: no car of my own, so I borrow a car (kari-ru)
Kari- sounds like car, the classic thing you borrow. The kanji 借 is person 亻 + 昔 (long ago): a person still holding something from long ago, so they owe it back. Borrowing and owing are the same debt, which is why one verb covers both.
借 — person radical 亻 + 昔 (formerly)
借 combines the person radical 亻 with 昔, which provides the sound and originally meant 'former times.' The character depicts a person engaging in an act tied to time — borrowing or lending something with the expectation of return. Today it means 'to borrow' or 'to lend.'