近い
ちかい · chikai · JLPT N5 · i-adj
near
📍 chikai sounds like cheek-eye: your cheek and eye sit very near each other
Say chi-ka-i as cheek-eye. Cheek and eye are neighbours on the face, barely a finger apart, so the sound itself points to near. The kanji 近 has the walking radical ⻌ plus 斤 (axe): only a short walk away.
近 — 辶 (walk) + 斤 (axe, phonetic)
近 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The 辶 radical signals movement or distance, while 斤 (axe) supplies the sound. Together they convey the idea of a short distance to walk, hence 'near' or 'close'.