ぶつ
ぶつ
butsu
= to hit, strike, smack (usually a person)
Butsu is the blunt, physical verb Japanese speakers reach for when someone hits or smacks another person — a scolding parent, a sibling scuffle, a warning not to raise a hand. What makes it tricky is that its kanji, 打つ, hides two completely different readings depending on context, and learners who only know one of them get confused fast.
Butsu means to hit or strike someone, almost always a person rather than an object: kodomo o butsu (子供をぶつ) means “to smack a child,” and butanaide (ぶたないで) is a common plea meaning “don’t hit me/him/her.” The kanji written 打つ is usually read utsu, not butsu, and covers a much wider range of meanings: striking broadly (ボールを打つ, to hit a ball), typing (メールを打つ, to type an email), or moving someone emotionally (心を打つ, to touch someone’s heart). Butsu is the narrower, colloquial reading reserved specifically for hitting a person with physical force. Closely related is butsukeru (ぶつける), an extremely common verb for banging or knocking something into something else, as in atama o butsukeru (頭をぶつける, to bump one’s head). As a godan verb, butsu conjugates as butta (past) and butte (te-form). Note that butsubutsu (ぶつぶつ) is an unrelated onomatopoeia meaning to mutter or grumble — it shares the sound but not the meaning.
The biggest trap with this word is the kanji 打つ itself: read as utsu it covers hitting balls, typing, and moving someone’s heart, but read as butsu it narrows down to the colloquial sense of smacking a person. Context (and often kana instead of kanji) tells you which reading is meant. Don’t confuse butsu with its cousin butsukeru (ぶつける), which is about banging or knocking something into an object or surface, not hitting a person on purpose — atama o butsuketa (頭をぶつけた, “I bumped my head”) is one of the most-used casual complaints in daily Japanese. Remember the godan conjugation pattern: butanai (won’t hit), butta (hit, past), butte (te-form). Finally, keep butsubutsu (ぶつぶつ, muttering/grumbling) mentally separate — it looks and sounds similar but has nothing to do with hitting.
Everyday use
弟をぶってしまった。
Otouto o butte shimatta.
I ended up hitting my little brother.
Casual / Social Media
昔は悪いことをすると親にぶたれたものだ。
Mukashi wa warui koto o suru to oya ni butareta mono da.
In the old days, kids used to get smacked by their parents for misbehaving.
Formal / Cultural context
彼のスピーチは人々の心を打った。
Kare no supiichi wa hitobito no kokoro o utta.
His speech moved people’s hearts.
One of the most persistent challenges for Japanese learners is that a single kanji can carry multiple readings tied to different shades of meaning, and 打つ is a textbook example. Read as utsu, it is a workhorse verb covering everything from sports (hitting a ball) to technology (typing) to emotion (moving someone’s heart). Read as butsu, it narrows sharply to the physical act of hitting a person, a sense speakers usually reserve for casual or emotionally charged speech rather than formal writing. Encountering the same characters doing such different jobs is a useful reminder that in Japanese, meaning often lives in the reading as much as in the kanji itself.
Far more common in daily life than butsu itself is its relative butsukeru (ぶつける), the go-to verb for accidentally banging into something — a table corner, a car bumper, a low doorway. Japan’s compact spaces, from crowded trains to narrow apartment hallways, make this kind of minor collision a routine part of daily conversation, and atama o butsuketa (bumped my head) is the kind of small, relatable complaint that comes up constantly among friends and family.