流れる
ながれる · nagareru · JLPT N3 · verb-ichidan
to flow
🌊 nagareru sounds like Niagara: Niagara Falls flows and washes things away
The kanji 流 has the water radical 氵 on its left, which marks it as a water word. 流れる is the intransitive verb: the thing flows by itself. Its transitive partner is 流す (nagasu), to let something flow or to wash it away.
流 — water radical 氵 + 㐬 (phonetic, child being born)
流 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The water radical 氵 gives the meaning, while 㐬 depicts an infant being born head-down with amniotic fluid, suggesting downward flow. Together they convey water flowing, and by extension 'to flow' or 'current'.