| Kanji in this term | ||
|---|---|---|
| 火 | 煙 | 立 |
| ひ Grade: 1 |
けむり Grade: S |
た Grade: 1 |
| kun'yomi | ||
| Alternative spellings |
|---|
| 火のない所に煙は立たない 火の無いところに煙は立たない 火の無い所に煙は立たない |
Can be broken down as 火 (hi, “fire”) + の (no, genitive particle; in subordinate clauses, can mark the subject of the clause) + ない (nai, “not, not any”) + ところ (tokoro, “place, location”) + に (ni, “at, in”, locative particle) + 煙 (kemuri, “smoke”) + は (wa, topic and contrastive particle) + 立たない (tatanai, “doesn't stand, doesn't rise”, the plain negative conjugation of verb 立つ (tatsu, “to stand, to rise”)).
Literally, "smoke doesn't rise in places with no fire".
火のないところに煙は立たない • (hi no nai tokoro ni kemuri wa tatanai)