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Why JLPT N1 learners mix up 吝嗇 (けち, “stinginess; miser; miserliness; skinflint; tightwad; niggard; pinching pennies”) and 合間 (あいま, “interval”).
Both are short, common nouns used to describe a state or a gap. 'Kechi' refers to a narrow-minded stinginess, while 'aima' refers to a gap in time, potentially confusing learners in abstract descriptions of 'space' or 'character.'
On JLPT N1, this pair shows up as a vocabulary meaning question. You see one word and pick its English equivalent from four options — one of which will be the other word in this pair, chosen as a distractor precisely because of the overlap.
Reading the explanation is step one. Targeted practice is what actually moves a confusion pair out of your weak list. Free, no signup needed to try.
Practice N1 confusion pairsSpot a mistake in this explanation? Email us. Explanations are AI-generated and human-reviewed; corrections welcome.