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Why JLPT N3 learners mix up 見舞い (みまい, “enquiry, expression of sympathy, expression of concern”) and 驚き (おどろき, “surprise, astonishment, wonder”).
Both are triggered by unexpected events. An accident causing 'surprise' (驚き) often leads to a 'sympathy visit' (見舞い), causing learners to associate the reaction with the subsequent social action.
On JLPT N3, 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 N3 confusion pairsSpot a mistake in this explanation? Email us. Explanations are AI-generated and human-reviewed; corrections welcome.