The core idea: a meaning part plus a sound part
Take 晴, the kanji in hare, clear weather. On the left, 日, the sun, says the word has to do with the sky. On the right, 青, blue, read sei, is there for its sound: 晴 is sei in compounds such as seiten, fine weather, and kaisei, a perfectly clear day. The same split runs through 板, board, where 木, wood, gives the meaning and 反, han, the sound, and through 訪, visit, where 言, words, meets 方, hō.
Japanese calls the meaning part ifu (意符) and the sound part onpu (音符). The useful habit is asking which half does which job. A forecast, a classroom and a sales team each use one of the three.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 明日は快晴でしょう。 | Ashita wa kaisei deshō. | Tomorrow should be perfectly clear. |
| 黒板の字を写してください。 | Kokuban no ji o utsushite kudasai. | Please copy what's on the blackboard. |
| 来週、お客様を訪問します。 | Raishū, okyakusama o hōmon shimasu. | Next week I'm visiting a client. |
The sei family: one sound, heard twice
青, blue, is the cleanest family. Add water and you get 清, clean; sun gives 晴, clear; rice gives 精, refined; words give 請, to request; heart gives 情, feeling; and 静, quiet, carries it too. In modern compounds nearly all read sei.
The member that seems to break, 情, read jō in kanjō, emotion, and jōhō, information, actually proves the family holds. Jō is the older go-on version of the same syllable, sei the later kan-on version. Several members keep both: 静 is jō in jōmyaku, vein. An office and a hotel use four members before lunch.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 請求書をお送りします。 | Seikyūsho o ookuri shimasu. | I'll send you the invoice. |
| 精密な部品なので、気をつけてください。 | Seimitsu na buhin na node, ki o tsukete kudasai. | It's a precision part, so please be careful. |
| 詳しい情報は後で共有します。 | Kuwashii jōhō wa ato de kyōyū shimasu. | I'll share the details later. |
| 清潔なタオルをご用意しております。 | Seiketsu na taoru o goyōi shite orimasu. | We have clean towels ready for you. |
| Kanji | Reading | Meaning | Word to learn it by |
|---|---|---|---|
| 青 | sei, shō | blue, young | seinen, young man; gunjō, ultramarine |
| 晴 | sei | clear weather | seiten, fine weather |
| 清 | sei, shō | clean, pure | seiketsu, hygienic |
| 精 | sei, shō | refined, spirit | seishin, mind; shōjin, devotion |
| 請 | sei, shin | to request | seikyū, billing; fushin, building work |
| 静 | sei, jō | quiet, still | ansei, rest; jōmyaku, vein |
| 情 | jō, sei | feeling | kanjō, emotion; fuzei, charm |
Read the Reading column downwards and you hear one syllable in two versions: sei, and the older shō or jō. Japan borrowed the sound twice. Kun readings ignore the family completely: hareru, kiyoi and shizuka share nothing in sound.
Families that mostly hold: han, hō and kō
The next three families turn up on menus and in the news. Within each, the meaning part picks the word: earth for a slope, wood for a board, food for a meal, a cowrie shell, once money, for trade. The reading barely changes. A diner in a set-meal restaurant uses one member without thinking.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| ご飯のおかわりはできますか。 | Gohan no okawari wa dekimasu ka. | Can I have a second bowl of rice? |
| Kanji | Reading | Meaning part | Everyday word |
|---|---|---|---|
| 坂 | han | earth: slope | kyūhan, steep slope; usually read saka |
| 板 | han, ban | wood: board | kokuban, blackboard; teppan, hotplate |
| 飯 | han | food: meal | gohan, rice or a meal |
| 販 | han | shell, once money: trade | jihanki, vending machine, literally self-selling machine |
| 返 | hen | movement: go back | henji, reply |
| 放 | hō | action: release | hōsō, broadcast |
| 訪 | hō | words: visit | hōmon, visit |
| 防 | bō | mound: defend | yobō, prevention |
| 房 | bō | door: room | reibō, air conditioning |
| 校 | kō | wood: school | gakkō, school |
| 効 | kō | strength: effect | kōka, effect |
| 郊 | kō | town: outskirts | kōgai, suburbs |
| 較 | kaku | vehicle: compare | hikaku, comparison |
Three kinds of wobble show. Voicing: han becomes ban after another kanji, and the hō family splits into hō and bō. A vowel shift: 返 is hen. And an outsider: 較 only looks like a member; its sound part was originally a different element later written like 交, hence kaku.
None of this ruins the family: a guess of han for 返 is close enough to recognise a word you know by ear.
Where a family scatters: 寺 and its relatives
寺, temple, read ji, lends its sound to 時, time, and 持, to hold, both ji, and to 詩, poem, shi, one voicing step away. Then the family scatters: 待, to wait, is tai; 特, special, is toku; and 等, grade or equal, is tō. They are genuine members; what changed is the sound itself.
Many of these characters were built two to three thousand years ago. Before Japan borrowed them, the members' sounds had drifted apart in China, and Japan then took them in more than one wave. So a family can hold tightly, like 青, or scatter, like 寺. At a station, the scattered members are all in use within a minute.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 次の特急は何時ですか。 | Tsugi no tokkyū wa nanji desu ka. | What time is the next limited express? |
| 少々お待ちください。 | Shōshō omachi kudasai. | One moment, please. |
| お荷物をお持ちしましょうか。 | Onimotsu o omochi shimashō ka. | Shall I carry your luggage for you? |
| 待合室は二番線の前です。 | Machiaishitsu wa nibansen no mae desu. | The waiting room is in front of platform 2. |
Guessing an on'yomi from the sound part
The payoff comes with a word you have heard but not seen written. A sign says 図書館 and you know only the first two kanji. The last contains 官, kan, as in keikan, police officer. Guess kan, say toshokan, and a word you know appears: library, literally a hall of maps and books.
The same trick works for families few textbooks teach: 包, hō, gives 抱, 泡, 胞, 砲 and 飽, all hō; 官 gives 館 and 管, kan; 義 gives 議 and 儀, gi; 同 gives 銅 and 洞, dō; 票 gives 標 and 漂, hyō. Around town and at work, those guesses land.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 図書館は何時までですか。 | Toshokan wa nanji made desu ka. | Until what time is the library open? |
| 会議室はこちらです。 | Kaigishitsu wa kochira desu. | The meeting room is this way. |
| 銅メダルを取りました。 | Dō medaru o torimashita. | She won a bronze medal. |
| 今年の目標は何ですか。 | Kotoshi no mokuhyō wa nan desu ka. | What's your goal for this year? |
| 細胞の研究をしています。 | Saibō no kenkyū o shite imasu. | I do research on cells. |
- Find the part that is not the radical, usually on the right or at the bottom.
- Ask whether you know its on reading, or a kanji containing it.
- Guess that reading, allowing for small shifts such as hō to bō, han to ban or ji to shi.
- Say the whole word with your guess and listen for a word you already know.
- Confirm in a dictionary, and file any exception with its family.
Confusable pairs: same sound part, different meaning part
Families create characters that look alike and sound alike, and only the meaning part separates them. The classic learner pair is 待つ, matsu, to wait, and 持つ, motsu, to hold: the left radical of 待 is associated with going, that of 持 is a hand. At a station, 精算 and 清算 are the pair to know: both are seisan, but only one belongs on the fare adjustment machine.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 精算機で精算してください。 | Seisanki de seisan shite kudasai. | Please pay the difference at the fare adjustment machine. |
| ここで待っていてください。 | Koko de matte ite kudasai. | Please wait here. |
| ちょっと持っていてもらえますか。 | Chotto motte ite moraemasu ka. | Could you hold this for a moment? |
| この坂を上ると駅です。 | Kono saka o noboru to eki desu. | The station is at the top of this slope. |
| Word | Reading | Meaning | The part that tells them apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| 待つ | matsu | to wait | the going radical on the left |
| 持つ | motsu | to hold, to carry | the hand radical on the left |
| 精算 | seisan | working out an exact amount, as for a fare | rice: refined, precise |
| 清算 | seisan | clearing a debt; ending a relationship | water: washed clean |
| 坂 | saka | a slope | earth |
| 板 | ita | a board | wood |
Spoken reality: naming a kanji out loud
Because families produce so many characters with one reading, Japanese speakers often need to say which one they mean, on the phone, at a counter or when spelling a name. The standard way is to name a common word containing it: the sei of seiten. A receptionist taking your booking will do exactly this.
Once you know that 晴, 清 and 精 are all sei, you see why a caller must add seiten, seiketsu or seimitsu. Someone called Harumi, for instance, spells her name this way.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 晴天の晴です。 | Seiten no sei desu. | It's the sei of seiten, fine weather. |
| 晴天の晴に、美しいの美です。 | Seiten no sei ni, utsukushii no bi desu. | The character from seiten, then the one from utsukushii. |
| 特別の特です。 | Tokubetsu no toku desu. | It's the toku of tokubetsu, special. |
| 訪問の訪ですね。 | Hōmon no hō desu ne. | So that's the hō of hōmon, visit? |
Common mistakes with sound components
Guessing kun readings from the sound part. Kun readings are Japanese words that arrived separately: 晴れ is hare, not seire. The fix: use families only for compounds.
Taking the radical for the sound part. The 日 in 時 is large and familiar, so learners reach for nichi. The fix: the sound part is usually the more complex half, on the right or at the bottom; common radicals such as sun, water and hand almost always carry meaning.
Trusting the family over the word. Reading 待機, standing by, as jiki, or 特別 as jibetsu, follows the family's main sound. The fix: learn tai and toku as named exceptions to the ji family.
Forgetting the older layer. Reading 静脈 as seimyaku. The fix: when a member has a jō or shō reading, expect it in older, often Buddhist or medical words, and learn those words whole.
Assuming every shared shape is a sound part. 問 and 聞 take their sound from 門, mon, but 間, which also contains 門, began as a picture of moonlight through a gate and reads kan. The fix: treat a guess as a guess until a word confirms it.