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Why JLPT N2 learners mix up 干す (ほす, “to air, to dry, to desiccate, to drain (off), to drink up”) and もたれる (もたれる, “to lean against, to lean on, to recline on, to lie heavy (on the stomach)”).
Both are verbs related to physical states. 干す (hosu) is a transitive action to dry items, while もたれる (motareru) is an intransitive verb describing the physical act of leaning or a heavy bodily sensation.
On JLPT N2, 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 N2 confusion pairsSpot a mistake in this explanation? Email us. Explanations are AI-generated and human-reviewed; corrections welcome.