若い
わかい · wakai · JLPT N5 · i-adj
young
🐣🌱 wakai: a WACKY guy is still young at heart
Wakai sounds like wacky + guy said fast. The kanji 若 is also the waka in 若者 (wakamono, young person), so learning this reading unlocks both words. The い ending marks it as an i-adjective.
若 — grass radical 艹 + right hand 右
Originally a pictograph of a person tidying their hair with both hands, suggesting compliance or 'to follow.' Over time it was borrowed phonetically to mean 'if' or 'like/as,' which became its dominant modern meanings. The grass radical on top reflects later script standardization rather than the original image.