川; 河
かわ · kawa · JLPT N5 · noun
river
🏞️ 川 is three strokes of flowing water; kawa sounds like car-wash without the r-sh
川 began as a drawing of water running between two banks, so its three lines are the current itself. 河 adds the water radical 氵 to a sound part and is used for larger rivers. Sound hook: a river is nature's ka-wa(sh).
河 — water radical 氵 + 可 (kě, phonetic)
河 is a classic semantic-phonetic compound: 氵 (water) gives the meaning 'river', while 可 supplies the sound. Originally 河 referred specifically to the Yellow River, and only later broadened to mean rivers in general.