Meaning

Primary

To Climb

Alternative

To Ascend

Word Type

intransitive verb, godan verb

Explanation

This word consists of kanji with hiragana attached. Because the hiragana ends with an sound, you know this word is a verb. The kanji itself means climb so the verb vocab version would be to climb (or to ascend), if that's the kind of thing you're into.

Reading

のぼる
  • Kyoko
    (Tokyo accent, female)
  • Kenichi
    (Tokyo accent, male)

Explanation

Since this word consists of a kanji with hiragana attached, you can bet that it will use the kun'yomi reading. This has the same reading as 上る which you learned all that time ago in Level 1. If you can remember that, you can remember this one!

Context

Patterns of Use

Common Word Combinations

  • 山に登る

    to climb a mountain

    ジグザグに登る

    to ascend in a zig-zag pattern

    木に登る

    to climb a tree

Context Sentences

木の上に登るのは楽しいです。

It's fun to climb on a tree.

山を登るときは、ジーパンをはかないで下さいね。

Do not wear jeans when climbing a mountain.

一生の内、少なくとも一度は富士山に登ることが夢なんです。

A dream of mine is to climb Mt. Fuji at least once in my lifetime.

Kanji Composition