盛ります（もります、morimasu）
- to serve

The Japanese verb 盛ります 盛ります primarily means to serve or heap food onto a plate or into a bowl. It implies a generous portion, often filling the container. It can also mean to add, put, or place something in a way that fills a space, or to decorate or embellish something. The core concept involves adding something, often in a plentiful or decorative manner. The verb is versatile and can be used in several contexts.

⚫︎ご飯をたくさん盛ってください。 Translation: Please serve me a lot of rice. ⚫︎サラダにトマトを盛りました。 Translation: I added tomatoes to the salad. ⚫︎お皿にケーキを綺麗に盛ってください。 Translation: Please serve the cake nicely on the plate.

⚫︎You would use 盛ります 盛ります when you are physically putting food on a plate or in a container. ⚫︎It is common in restaurants and homes when serving meals. ⚫︎You could also use it when talking about adding toppings or ingredients to a dish. ⚫︎Furthermore, it can be used more figuratively to describe adding or arranging things, such as decorating a room. ⚫︎Be mindful of the situation. While it is about adding in general, the main usage is about food.

⚫︎The verb is written as 盛ります 盛ります in hiragana, or 盛ります in kanji. ⚫︎The kanji is 盛, and it can also be used in words unrelated to food serving. ⚫︎The okurigana (the hiragana following the kanji) is always りま (rimasu-form, i.e. 盛ります, 盛りますした, 盛りたい).

⚫︎入れる (ireru): to put in, to insert - less specific to food. ⚫︎よそいます (yasoimasu): to serve - more specific to serving food. ⚫︎盛り付ける (moritsukeru): to arrange food. ⚫︎加える (kuwaeru): to add. ⚫︎載せる (noseru): to put on; to place on (a surface).

⚫︎減らす (herasu): to reduce; to decrease. ⚫︎取り除く (torinozoku): to remove. ⚫︎下げる (sageru): to lower; to reduce.

お寿司をたくさん盛って、みんなで食べましょう。 ・Translation: Let's serve a lot of sushi and eat it together. ・Explanation: This sentence describes serving a generous amount of sushi to share among people.

パーティーのために、テーブルに料理を美しく盛りましょう。 ・Translation: Let's arrange the food beautifully on the table for the party. ・Explanation: This sentence uses 盛りましょう 盛ろう in its potential form to suggest arranging the food decoratively, ready for the party.

The kanji 盛 (pronounced mori in other contexts) originally meant "to prosper" or "to flourish." Over time, its meaning expanded to include the idea of "filling" or "heaping," leading to its use in the context of serving food or adding elements to something. The etymology is a combination of the radical "成" (sei, meaning to become, to achieve) and "皿" (sara, meaning plate), which implies something put on the plate or to make a plate full.