diagonal

1. Origins, structure, and basic meaning

• Structure: 斜 has 11 strokes; 斜め is read ななめ, and 斜面 is read しゃめん.
• Basic usage: 斜め describes a tilt or diagonal direction; 斜面 denotes a sloping surface or hillside.

2. Common pitfalls and similar expressions

• Direction and sloping ground
  • 額縁が斜めになっていた means that a picture frame was tilted. 広場を斜めに横切る describes moving diagonally across a square.
  • 急な斜面 is a steep slope. While 斜め describes the orientation of an object or a direction of movement, 斜面 can denote the sloping ground that someone descends or uses for fields.