Kanji and kana
Practical guides on speaking, grammar, pronunciation, listening, and study planning, written for learners who want to use Japanese in real life.
Kanji and kana · Page 7
Kanji With Many Readings: How to Predict Which One Is Meant
A kanji such as 生 has many readings because it was borrowed with more than one Chinese pronunciation and then lent to several native Japanese words; the shape of the word tells you which reading to use, and anchor words settle the rest.
12 min readKanji Sound Components: Phonetic Families That Predict On'yomi
Most kanji pair a meaning part with a sound part, and characters that share a sound part usually share an on reading, like the sei of seiten and seiketsu; sounds drifted over centuries, so treat the family as a strong hint, not a rule.
12 min readJapanese Kanreki and Longevity Celebrations: The Kanji Behind Each Age
Japanese longevity celebrations mark 60, 70, 77, 80, 88, 90, 99 and 100, and most of their names hide the age in a kanji: 米, rice, splits into eight, ten, eight for beiju, and 白 is 百 minus one for hakuju at 99.
12 min readReversible Kanji Compounds: Why Kaisha and Shakai Differ
Many two-kanji words turn into a different word when reversed, such as gyūnyū (牛乳, milk) and nyūgyū (乳牛, dairy cow), because the second kanji usually names what the thing is and the first only narrows it down.
12 min readJapanese Kanji for Body and Health: Clinic Signs, Symptoms and Pharmacy Words
Twenty kanji cover the body parts you point to, the symptoms you describe and the signs on a clinic or pharmacy, so learning 体, 頭, 目, 手, 足, 病, 院, 薬, 熱 and 痛 as one set makes a visit to a Japanese doctor far less daunting.
13 min readJapanese Kanji for Directions and Signs: Exits, Compass Points and Warnings
About two dozen kanji do most of the work on Japanese signs, and once you can read 出口, 入口, 東西南北, 上下左右 and 禁止 you can find your way through a station, a department store and a car park without a translation app.
13 min readJapanese Kanji for Money and Shopping: Price Tags, Tax and Discount Signs
Japanese price tags and shop signs run on about twenty kanji, and once you can read 円, 税込, 税抜, 割引, 半額 and 無料 you will know the real price of anything before you reach the till.
13 min readJapanese Kanji for Transport and Travel: Tickets, Platforms and Train Types
Japanese stations put everything you need on a board, and once you can read 駅, 線, 特急, 各停, 乗り換え, 発 and 着 you can pick the right train, platform and ticket without asking anyone.
13 min readJapanese Kanji for Weather and Seasons: Reading the Forecast and the Calendar
The Japanese weather forecast uses a small, stable set of kanji, and once you can read 晴, 曇, 雨, 雪, 暑, 寒 and 台風 you can understand the TV forecast, a weather app and the small talk that starts almost every conversation in Japan.
13 min readJapanese Kanji for Emotions and Feelings: 楽 悲 怒 愛 喜 and Their Adjectives
Fifteen kanji cover most of the feelings you will describe in Japanese, and nearly every one of them turns into an adjective or a verb, so learning 楽 gives you tanoshii and tanoshimu, and 悲 gives you kanashii and kanashimu, in one go.
12 min readJapanese Kanji for Family and People: 父 母 子 兄 弟 姉 妹 and Their Readings
The kanji for family members are among the first you learn, but each one carries two sets of words, a humble one for your own family and a polite one for other people's, and the kanji stays the same while the reading changes.
13 min readJapanese Kanji for Nature: 山 川 海 空 森 花 and the Place Names They Build
Fifteen nature kanji, mountain, river, sea, sky, forest, woods, flower, tree, rice field, stone, island, lake, star, light and grass, are among the simplest characters to learn and the most common in Japanese place names and surnames.
12 min readPractical guides
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