紙飛行機の作り方をやさしい日本語で

What does “oru” mean in Japanese?

折る (oru) means “to fold” or “to bend,” and it’s the verb at the heart of building a paper airplane: 半分に折る (“fold it in half”), 角を折る (“fold the corners”). It’s also the 折 in 折り紙 (origami) — literally “folded paper.” Once you know 折る, the word origami stops looking exotic and simply reads as “the folding craft.”

Paired with it in the clip is 裏返す (uragaesu), “to turn over / flip.” 折る reaches beyond paper, too: 傘が折れる (“the umbrella snaps,” intransitive 折れる), 道を右に折れる (“turn right”). One nice aside: the idiom 折り紙つき (“certified, guaranteed”) uses an older sense of 折り紙 — an official folded certificate — not the paper craft.