間違える
Meaning in Englishmake a mistake, confuse
Animated kanji stroke order
Related sentences
Word context
What it means
What does 間違える mean? It means to make a mistake or to err in performing an action or forming a judgment. It describes incorrectness in a task, perception, or memory and is used across casual and formal registers with appropriate conjugation.
Main meanings
- to make a mistake in an action or task
- to be mistaken or misperceive
- to misinterpret or misread when combined with a verb like 見る or 聞く
How to use it
Used in both informal and formal contexts to describe making mistakes. In speaking, まちがえた expresses past casual mistakes; in polite form, まちがえました; it also appears in phrases like Xを間違える to indicate you mistook X or misjudged X, and in compound constructions such as 見間違える or 聞き間違える to describe misperception.
Variants and close terms
- 誤る (ayamaru) — to err
- 見間違える (mimachigaeru) — to missee, misread
- 間違いを正す (machigai o tadasu) — to correct a mistake
Composition
- 間: between, interval, space
- 違: to differ, to be wrong
- える: verb ending that marks a ru-verb, indicating the action of making an error
Etymology
Kun'yomi machigae-ru; formed from the verb stem machigae- plus the -る ending to create a ru-verb, with 間違 combining the concepts of a gap or difference that yields error
Word class
Verb (ichidan, ru-verb)