借り
Meaning in Englishborrowing, debt, obligation
Animated kanji stroke order
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Word context
What it means
借り means the noun form for the act of borrowing; it denotes the concept of taking something with the obligation to return it and is used to name the general idea of borrowing or a loan in everyday and formal Japanese.
Main meanings
- Borrowing or loan—the act of taking something with the obligation to return it
- Debt owed or credit in financial or social terms
- Borrowed status in idioms and fixed expressions such as 借りがある and 借りを返す
How to use it
Used as a noun to refer to the act of borrowing or a loan; common in both casual and formal speech. It appears with verbs in the related verb 借りる to express the act of borrowing, and in fixed expressions such as 借りがある or 借りを返す to discuss debt or repayment. It also appears in compounds like 借り手 referring to a borrower.
Variants and close terms
- 借入 (しゃくにゅう) — borrowing, loan
- 借金 (しゃっきん) — debt
- 借用 (しゃくよう) — borrowing, formal usage
Composition
- 借 expresses the core idea of borrowing; 借りる uses this meaning as a verb, and 借り is the noun-form denoting the act or state of borrowing
Etymology
借 is a Sino-Japanese character; its on'yomi is しゃく and kun-reading is かり. The noun 借り is formed from 借 by attaching the nominalizing suffix り to express the abstract concept of borrowing, a pattern shared with many Japanese verbs when turning them into nouns.
Word class
Noun (名詞) — nominalized form of 借りる