How Kanji readings work

Japanese was spoken long before it was written. When Chinese characters were adopted to write it, two things happened side by side, over centuries rather than all at once.

The characters arrived carrying pronunciations, adapted from the Chinese of the time. They were also attached to native Japanese words that already existed and already meant roughly what the character meant.

Both survived, and neither replaced the other. So one character can carry Chinese-derived pronunciations and native Japanese ones — often more than one of each. When a dictionary lists six readings for a single Kanji, it is recording that history. It is not giving you six things to memorise today.

On’yomi (音読み) are the readings that came from Chinese. Dictionaries and reference tables usually write them in Katakana, and so do the cards in this app — a reading shown in Katakana is telling you it is an On’yomi.

On’yomi are common in Kanji compounds: words built from two or more Kanji.

Common, though — not always. Section 6 shows the exceptions.

Kun’yomi (訓読み) are the readings tied to native Japanese words. Reference material usually writes them in Hiragana, and the cards here follow that.

Kun’yomi often appear when a Kanji is a word on its own, and when it is followed by Hiragana endings.

Often, again — not always.

Okurigana (送り仮名) are the Hiragana written after a Kanji as part of the same word. In 高い the Kanji carries たか and the い is okurigana. They are part of the word, not decoration: they often carry the grammar, and changing them changes the word.

A Kanji compound is a word written with two or more Kanji together, with no Hiragana between them — 学校, 電車, 大学.

Compounds often use On’yomi, which is why the two ideas are usually introduced together. But a compound is a word like any other, and words can be irregular.

Two guesses worth having, both of which are wrong often enough to matter:

• Two or more Kanji written together→often On’yomi
• A Kanji alone, or followed by Hiragana endings→often Kun’yomi

Both lines say often. Here is the same Kanji breaking one of them and following the other, in two words you will meet early:

Treat the two lines as a first guess when you meet an unfamiliar word, and let the word itself correct you. That is all they are for.

The most useful habit is to learn Kanji readings through real words.

A Kanji on its own does not have a pronunciation you can say — it has a set of possible readings. A word does have one. So the word is the thing worth learning, and the reading comes with it, already attached to something you can use.

A reference dictionary lists every reading ever recorded for a character. The study cards here do not. They show the readings that the words in your current N5-aligned set actually use, together with those words.

That is deliberate. A card listing five readings you will not meet for years makes the one you need today harder to find, not easier.

So some cards are short. 十 shows one reading. 円 shows one reading and no example word at all, because no word in the current set uses it. A short card is telling you where you are, not hiding something from you — and the fuller record is still there in any dictionary when you want it.