降る
ふる · furu · JLPT N5 · verb-godan
to fall
🌧️❄️ furu sounds like fall: rain and snow furu (fall) from the sky
降 means descend: the left side 阝 is a hill radical, the right side shows feet stepping downward. 降る is used only for things that come down from the sky, such as rain (雨が降る) and snow (雪が降る). Furu and fall both start with f.
降 — 阜 (mound) 阝+ 夅 (descend, phonetic)
Originally depicted two feet (夅) walking down from a mound or hill (阜), showing the act of descending. The 阝on the left is the 'mound' radical, while 夅 carries both phonetic and semantic weight, suggesting downward movement. Pronounced jiàng for 'descend' and xiáng for 'surrender'.