What is the difference between the words sora (空) and ten (天) – heaven?

In Japanese there is the word sora (空) which can be literally translated as sky or void, and there is also the word ten (天) which can be translated as sky, but what is the difference between the 2? In this article try to understand the differences and meanings of each of these words.

If you are an English student you might think that the difference is the same as the word sky and heaven, where one is the literal sky and the other the spiritual sky. But in Japanese? It's the same thing? We can say yes and no.

Índice de Conteúdo

What does SORA 空 mean?

O kanji sky or kuu (空) has several meanings besides sky, it can also mean emptiness, vacuum, air, etc. With this kanji we form words like:

  • 空気 - kouki - Air, atmosphere
  • 空港 - kuukou - Airport
  • 空間 - kuukan - Space, air space
  • 空軍 - kuugun - Air force, aviation

We noticed that the word sora takes more towards the side of space, of the void. The sky is a big empty space, and that makes a lot of sense.

What does TEN 天 mean?

The dez or love (天) can be used to write several words in relation to spiritual, paradise or symbolic heaven, see some examples below:

  • 天国 - tengoku - This word literally means paradise, kingdom of heaven;
  • 天使 - tenshi - means angel

But the kanji 天 is also used to write words like:

  • 天皇 - tennou - emperor
  • 天気 - tenki - Time
  • 天文 - tenmon - Astronomy

We can notice that the kanji 天 is used to refer to great and sovereign things like heaven, time or emperor. It even has to do with the ideogram dai 大 which means big.

So the differences between these 2 kanji is that sky 空 from the idea of space, emptiness while ten 天 from the idea of grandeur, immensity, power, etc.

So it is not easy to state a significant difference between these two words. Not to mention that there are many other words using other ideograms with the same meanings of heavens, paradises, angels, etc. You will only know the right moment to use each word when you know the whole context or are more familiar with the language.

The Japanese language is a very complex and simple language at the same time, some things can really confuse our mind, but it has interesting and significant origins and differences.

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