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Mnemonics for the ナ (na), メ (me) and チ (chi) Characters

In this section we will analyse the ナ (na), メ (me) and チ (chi) characters.

You’ll notice that all three of these characters have one thing in common – a curved base body, with a stroke going through near the top. The チ (chi) character looks almost identical to the ナ (na) character, except it has a sloped line on the top of it.

 

ナ (na), メ (me) and チ (chi)

 
 

So what do all these characters have in common? They’re all a sword. For a mnemonic, think of all of these characters as being swords.

The first character ナ (na) represents a curved sabre sort of blade which is sitting upright. Imagine a cranky young ninja girl not letting anyone pass by. She puts her sword out in defiance as you attempt to approach. She keeps saying ‘na!’ in an annoying manner, meaning ‘nah uh! You’re not passing by’.

The next character メ (me) represents the same sword, however this time the sword is stuck in the ground and is bent slightly. This is because its wielder, the cranky young ninja girl, has been killed in battle! Her sword is left stuck in the ground and is on an angle slightly. There is a ‘mess’ near the sword.

The last character チ (chi) represents the same sword yet again. Someone has picked the sword up and attempted to restore it back to its former health, however has failed to do so upon realising that the sword is made of quite a surprisingly cheap material. You can see how the top part of the sword has begun to melt away, making it quite ‘cheap’ – ‘chi’.

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