かかる (掛かる): One Verb, Many Meanings (with Examples)

Why one verb has so many meanings

The translations of かかる scatter all over the place — take? hang? lock? catch a cold? — and at first there seems to be no logic to it. But almost every use shares one quiet idea: something comes to rest on, or gets applied to, something else — and it happens on its own, without anyone actively making it happen.

A picture hangs on the wall (it's just there). A task takes an hour (the time gets used up by itself). A lock catches. A phone call comes in. An illness settles onto you. An engine catches and starts. Hold that "X settles onto Y, by itself" image and the long list below stops being ten words to memorize and becomes one idea in many costumes.

One structural note before the meanings: かかる is the intransitive verb — it describes a thing being in a state or something happening on its own. It has a transitive twin, かける ("to hang it / apply it / do it to something"), which we'll line up at the end. The pair is a classic JLPT trap.

The meanings, most common first

1. To take (time or money) (掛かる)

2. To hang / be hanging (掛かる)

3. To be locked (鍵がかかる)

4. To ring in / come in (a phone call) (電話がかかる)

5. To catch / come down with (an illness) (病気にかかる)

6. To trouble / fall on someone (迷惑がかかる)

7. To start / kick in (an engine) (エンジンがかかる)

And it keeps going, all from the same "X settles onto Y, by itself" image: 音楽がかかっている (music is playing), 保険がかかっている (it's insured), 橋がかかる (a bridge spans / is built across). You don't need to learn each as a separate word — once the core image clicks, most of them feel intuitive.

Common collocations worth memorizing

Some かかる phrases are so fixed that natives treat them as single units. Learn these as chunks and you'll sound natural fast:

Kanji & related verbs

The everyday kanji is 掛 ("to hang") — the same character used for its transitive twin 掛ける — though かかる is very often left in kana in casual writing. Be aware that, just like かける, several different verbs are pronounced かかる but written with other kanji and mean different things:

• 掛かる (かかる, N5) — the all-purpose verb on this page: to take, to hang, to be applied.
• 架かる (かかる, N1) — for a bridge spanning a gap (橋が架かる); usually just written 掛かる or in kana at N5.
• 罹る (かかる, N1) — specifically to come down with an illness (病気に罹る); at N5 you'll only ever see this in kana.

At N5, focus entirely on the all-purpose かかる / 掛かる. Just know the others exist so they don't surprise you later.

かかる vs かける — the trap

These two are a transitive/intransitive pair, and the JLPT loves testing them. The difference is who's doing it:

A neat way to feel it: with かかる you're describing how things are — and the thing it happens to is marked with が. With かける you can point to the person doing it, and what they act on is marked with を. 電話がかかってくる = "a call comes in"; 電話をかける = "(I) make a call." Same with time: この仕事は時間がかかる = "this job takes time" (it just does), versus この仕事に時間をかける = "(I) spend time on this job" (on purpose).

Quick recap

• One image powers them all: something settles onto / is applied to a thing, by itself.
• High-value chunks: 時間がかかる, お金がかかる, 鍵がかかる, 電話がかかってくる.
• It's an intransitive Group 1 (う-)verb — pair it with の particle が, not を; its partner かける is transitive and uses を.
• Other かかる kanji (架かる, 罹る) are different shades of the same idea — learn them later.

Your turn

Practice more N5 vocabulary →