訪 - VISIT Just To Chat

Readings & Meanings:

おとず（れる）

ホウ

たず（ねる）

to visit, to call on

Common Usage:

訪れる

家庭訪問

Examples:

久しぶりに祖父の家を訪れた。

来週の火曜日に担任の先生の家庭訪問がある。

Translations:

I visited my grandfather's house for the first time in a while.

Next week on Tuesday, the homeroom teacher is going to call on his pupils' homes.

Radical:

Our first look at Gon-ben in a while! 言 is Gon-ben and obviously has to do with language.

方 is on the right. This is actually a pictograph of a plow with blades spread left and right. 方 also acts as a phonetic element, lending its pronunciation of ほう to 訪.

To visit is like spreading your words far and wide? I guess some might see it like that.

Important:

たずねる is one of those words that has a cognate pair--by which I mean two similar meanings with the same pronunciation but different kanji.

訪ねる（たずねる）means to visit, call upon.

尋ねる（たずねる）means to ask, enquire (formally, politely, as opposed to the more common 聞く)

References:

http://www.kanjinetworks.com/indices/radindex.html
http://www.thejapanesepage.com/node/kanji/o.htm