Courage in Japanese: yūki, explained based on its kanji expression

How to say “courage” in Japanese

Japanese people would say “yūki”. It is the Japanese word for ‘courage’ or ‘bravery’. In this blog post, I will explain this word in detail based on its kanji expression. And also, I will explain how to use it through example sentences. Let’s get started!

Contents

• Definition and meanings of “yūki”
• “Yūki” in kanji
• Example #1: how to say “courage” in Japanese
• Example #2: another usage of “yūki”
• Summary

Definition and meanings of “yūki”

Let me start with the definition and meanings of “yūki”.

• yūki – 勇気 (ゆうき) : a noun meaning ‘courage’ or ‘bravery’ in Japanese.

The definition and meanings are very simple and clear, I think. To understand this word more clearly, however, let me explain its kanji characters in detail, one by one.

“Yūki” in kanji

Below are the kanji characters used in the word, “yūki”.

• 勇 : a kanji character used to mean ‘brave’ in Japanese.
• 気 : a kanji character used to mean ‘mind’, ‘sprit’, ‘feeling’, ‘heart’, or such in Japanese. This kanji character can also be found in other words like “yaruki“, “honki“, “byouki“, and “heki“.

From these two kanji characters, we can understand that “yūki” literally means ‘brave mind’. This kanji concept seems to be in line with the meanings.

When we meet new kanji expressions, we should check their kanji characters in detail to understand their meanings clearly and deeply. In many cases, kanji characters tell us a lot about meanings of words they form. Actually, here, we got the better understanding of “yūki” through the detailed kanji check above.

Then, let me explain how to use “yūki” through the example sentences below.

Example #1: how to say “courage” in Japanese

Below are the new words used in the example sentence.

• anata – あなた : a pronoun meaning ‘you’ in Japanese.
• no – の : a case particle put after a noun or pronoun to make its possessive case. In the example, it is used after “anata” to make its possessive case, “anata no”, which means ‘your’ in Japanese.
• ni – に : a case particle used to indicate an object to which an action is directed. In the example, it is used after “yūki” to indicate the object to which the action, ‘to admire’, is directed.
• kanshin shi – 感心し (かんしんし) : one conjugation of the verb, “kanshin suru”, which means ‘to admire’ in Japanese. Its conjugations are basically subjected to those of “suru”. So, we can focus only on its “suru” part. In the example sentence, it has been conjugated for the better connection with its following word.
• masu – ます : an auxiliary verb used after a verb to make it polite. Probably it is well known as a part of Japanese masu form. In the example, it is used after the conjugated verb, “kanshin shi”, to make it sound polite.

This is a typical usage of “yūki”. When we want say “courage” in Japanese, this would be the best word in most cases.

Example #2: another usage of “yūki”

Below are the new words used in the example sentence.

• watashi – 私 (わたし) : a pronoun meaning ‘I’ in Japanese.
• wa – は : a binding particle working as a case marker or topic marker. In the example, it is used to put a focus on “watashi”.
• ga – が : a case particle used to make the subject word or the object word in a sentence. In the example, it is put after “yūki” to make the subject word in the sentence.
• nai – ない : an i-adjective used to deny the existence of a thing. In the example, it is used after “yūki” to deny its existence.

This is another typical usage of “yūki”. In this example, it is used as a part of the widely-used expression, “yūki ga nai”, which literally means ‘courage doesn’t exist’ or ‘there is no courage’. So, the original nuance of the Japanese sentence is more like ‘for me, there is no courage’. In most cases, however, its meaning can be interpreted as ‘not to be brave’, as I translated. When we want to mean ‘not to be brave’ in Japanese, we can use this expression. Conversely, when we want to mean ‘to be brave’ in Japanese, we can use the expression, “yūki ga aru”, which literally means ‘courage exists’ or ‘there is courage’. These two expressions should be learnt together.

Summary

In this blog post, I’ve explained the word, “yūki”, in detail based on its kanji expression. And also, I’ve explained how to use it through the example sentences. Let me summarize them as follows.

• yūki – 勇気 (ゆうき) : a noun meaning ‘courage’ or ‘bravery’ in Japanese. These two kanji characters literally mean ‘brave mind’. This kanji concept seems to be in line with the meanings.
• yūki ga aru – 勇気がある (ゆうきがある) : a Japanese expression for ‘to be brave’. It literally means ‘courage exists’ or ‘there is courage’, but normally can be interpreted as ‘to be brave’.
• yūki ga nai – 勇気がない (ゆうきがない) : a Japanese expression for ‘not to be brave’. It literally means ‘courage doesn’t exist’ or ‘there is no courage’, but normally can be interpreted as ‘not to be brave’.

Hope my explanations are understandable and helpful for Japanese learners.