来る
くる · kuru · JLPT N5 · verb-irregular
to come
🚶 kuru sounds like crew: the crew will come when called
Kuru is close to English crew. Hook: call the crew and they come. It is one of only two irregular verbs in Japanese, so its forms shift vowel: kuru (come), kimasu (polite), konai (not come).
来 — pictograph of a wheat plant with grain heads
来 originally depicted a stalk of wheat with drooping grain heads, and meant 'wheat' in oracle bone script. It was later borrowed phonetically to write the unrelated verb 'to come,' which became its dominant meaning. The original 'wheat' sense was taken over by 麥 (now 麦).
きたる · kitaru · JLPT N1 · verb-irregular
to come
来 — pictograph of a wheat plant with grain heads
来 originally depicted a stalk of wheat with drooping grain heads, and meant 'wheat' in oracle bone script. It was later borrowed phonetically to write the unrelated verb 'to come,' which became its dominant meaning. The original 'wheat' sense was taken over by 麥 (now 麦).