洗う
あらう · arau · JLPT N5 · verb-godan
to wash
🧼 sounds like: Ah, raw! Wash it before you eat it
a-ra-u sounds like Ah, raw. Raw vegetables need a wash first. The kanji 洗 has the water radical 氵 on the left plus 先 (before): water comes before anything else when you wash.
洗 — water radical 氵 + 先 (xiān)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The water radical 氵 indicates the meaning (washing with water), while 先 supplies the sound, originally close to xiǎn/xǐ. The character has long meant 'to wash' or 'rinse,' and by extension 'to cleanse' or 'wash away.'