No. 413 in Japanese
子
"子" means "child" or "offspring" in English.
In a sentence
彼の子供は元気いっぱいです。
His child is full of energy.
In this sentence, '子' (こ, ko) is used as part of the word '子供' (こども, kodomo), which means 'child'. It refers to someone's offspring or young person.
子猫が公園で遊んでいます。
A kitten is playing in the park.
Here, '子' (こ, ko) is a prefix meaning 'child' and is combined with '猫' (ねこ, neko), meaning 'cat', to form '子猫' (こねこ, koneko), meaning 'kitten' or 'young cat'.
舞台に立ちたい子はいますか?
Is there a child who wants to stand on the stage?
In this sentence, '子' (こ, ko) is used as a standalone noun meaning 'child', referring generically to a young person.
Hear it in real podcasts
The recording above is a synthetic voice. Hear how people say “子” in actual Japanese podcasts.
Find “子” in podcastsLearn it from shows you like
LangTurbo plays Japanese podcasts with a transcript and the English under every line. Tap a word like this one and it tells you what it means right there. For iPhone, iPad and Android.
Learning English?
LangTurbo plays real English podcasts with every line translated into 日本語, and tells you what any word means in that sentence. For iPhone, iPad and Android.
Japanese books and courses on Amazon (an affiliate link: a purchase through it supports this site).