落ちる To Fall Down

Meaning

Primary

To Fall Down

Alternatives

To Fall, To Drop, To Fail

Word Type

intransitive verb, ichidan verb

Explanation

This word consists of kanji with hiragana attached. Because the hiragana ends with an う sound, you know this word is a verb. The kanji itself means fall and the vocab verb version means to fall down, to fall, and to drop. It can also mean to fail, in the sense of failing an exam.

Reading

おちる

Explanation

Since this word consists of a kanji with hiragana attached, you can bet that it will use the kun'yomi reading. You didn't learn that reading with this kanji, so here's a mnemonic to help you:

If you start to fall down, what do you yell? "OHHHH (お)!"

Context

Common Word Combinations

• 〜が落ちる

  日が落ちる

  the sun goes down

  力が落ちる

  to lose strength

  葉が落ちる

  the leaf falls, to become leafless

• 〜に落ちる

  下に落ちる

  to fall below

  上に落ちる

  to fall on top of something

  海に落ちる

  to fall into the ocean

Context Sentences

今、雪が落ちる音がしませんでした？

Did you hear the snow falling just now?

弟は虫を取ろうとして、木から落ちてしまいました。

My brother fell off the tree trying to catch insects.

土の上にはカラフルな葉がたくさん落ちていました。

A lot of colorful leaves have fallen on the ground.

Kanji Composition

1. 落

   らく Fall