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16
固める

To Make Something Hard

Meaning

To Make Something Hard, To Harden Something, To Strengthen Something

Word Type

transitive verb, ichidan verb

Explanation

This word consists of kanji with hiragana attached. Because the hiragana ends with an う sound, you know this word is a verb. The kanji itself means hard so the verb vocab version? To make something hard. You need to differentiate this from 固まる, though, which means "to harden" (the hardening happens on its own). This word means "to make something hard," because you're doing the hardening. You can remember this because you want to make something hard. And to do that, you send special "mail" (める) to this thing you want to make hard, and this mail does that for you.

Reading

かためる

Explanation

Since the reading for 固 (かた) is different than the one you learned with the kanji, here's a mnemonic to help you: Why would you want to make something hard? Obviously because you want to put it in a catapult (かた). There's no point putting soft things in catapults, after all.

Context

Patterns of Use

Common Word Combinations

  • 足元を固める

    to firmly plant one's feet on the ground, to secure a solid foothold

    決意を固める

    to harden one's resolve

    足場を固める

    to secure a solid foothold, to secure one's position

  • コンクリートで固める

    to harden with concrete, to reinforce with concrete

    セメントで固める

    to harden with cement, to reinforce with cement

    ゼラチンで固める

    to harden with gelatin

  • しっかり固める

    to properly harden something, to harden something well

    がっちり固める

    to firmly harden something

    まず固める

    to harden something first

Context Sentences

これはゼラチンも火も使わずにレンジでチンして固めるレアチーズケーキのレシピです。

This is a recipe for a rare cheese cake that hardens in the microwave without gelatin or flame.

ビエトは毎朝一時間かけてリーゼントをワックスで固めます。

Viet takes an hour to make his pompadour hard every morning.

コウイチは、ワニカニを世界一の日本語学習サイトにする決意を固めた。

Koichi was determined to make WaniKani the best Japanese language learning site in the world.

Kanji Composition