N5 · Writing Japanese
Kanji and their readings
kanji: on and kun readings
Characters that carry meaning, most with a native reading and a Chinese-derived one, and furigana to say which.
Kanji came to Japan from China, and each one stands for a meaning rather than a sound: 山 is a mountain, 川 a river, 人 a person. In ordinary writing kanji carry the content words — nouns and the stems of verbs and adjectives — while hiragana carries the grammar and katakana the loanwords. The list of kanji for general use runs to about two thousand, but a learner meets them a few at a time, inside words.
Most kanji have two kinds of reading. The kun reading is the native Japanese word that was attached to the character: 山. The on reading imitates the old Chinese pronunciation and is used mainly in compounds: 富士山, 火山. A useful rule of thumb follows: a kanji on its own, or followed by kana, usually takes the kun reading; a kanji inside a compound of two or more usually takes the on reading. It is a rule of thumb, not a law, but it is right far more often than not.
Many kanji have more than one reading of each kind, because Japanese borrowed them at different times and attached several native words to some of them. One character is read five ways in 先生, 一生, 生きる, 生まれる and 生ビール, and each word makes its own reading clear. That is the point to hold on to: the reading belongs to the word, not to the character, and the surrounding kana or kanji tell you which one it is.
Furigana are the small kana written above a kanji to show its reading. Japanese children's books use them throughout, newspapers use them for rare characters, and this site uses them everywhere so that nothing has to wait until the kanji are known. The trap for English speakers is learning kanji as isolated pictures with lists of readings attached. Learned that way, they do not stick; learned as parts of words a reader actually needs, they do.
The form
| mountain (kun reading) | 山 |
| Mount Fuji (on reading) | 富士山 |
| person (kun reading) | 人 |
| a Japanese person (on reading) | 日本人 |
| three people (on reading) | 三人 |
| one person, two people (special readings) | 一人・二人 |
| to eat (kun reading with kana) | 食べる |
| a meal (on reading) | 食事 |
| to go (kun reading with kana) | 行く |
| a trip (on reading) | 旅行 |
| today (a reading for the whole word) | 今日 |
| all three scripts in one sentence | 私はコーヒーを飲みます。 |
The rules one by one
A kanji on its own, or followed by kana, usually takes its native (kun) reading.
山に登ります。I am going to climb the mountain.
In a compound of two or more kanji the Chinese-derived (on) reading is usual.
来年、富士山に登ります。I am going to climb Mount Fuji next year.
Numbers with counters can change the reading: three people is sannin, but one and two people are hitori and futari.
一人で来ました。I came on my own.
Some words have a reading that belongs to the whole word and cannot be split between its kanji.
今日は日曜日です。Today is Sunday.
A closer look
Why Japanese keeps its kanji
Japanese could be written entirely in kana, and it sometimes is, for small children. Adults do not, for two reasons. Japanese has no spaces, and the change from kanji to kana shows the eye where a content word ends and the grammar begins. And Japanese has a great many words that sound the same: 橋 (bridge), 箸 (chopsticks) and 端 (edge) are all hashi, and the kanji tell them apart at a glance.
Some words take a reading that belongs to the whole word rather than to its characters: 今日 (today), 明日 (tomorrow), 大人 (adult). The kanji give the meaning and the native word gives the sound. There is nothing to work out; they are learned as words, which is how all kanji are best learned anyway.
Exceptions and special cases (1)
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the reading belongs to the whole word, not to its parts
learn the word as one block: 今日, 大人, 一人.
今日は大人も子どもも休みです。Today is a holiday for adults and children alike.
These are native words that were given a fitting pair of kanji afterwards. The characters were chosen for their meaning, so their usual readings do not add up to the word.
How to spot it
- 漢字
- 音読み
- 訓読み
- ふりがな
Example sentences
山田さんは山が好きです。Mr Yamada likes the mountains.
毎日漢字を五つ覚えます。I learn five kanji every day.
子どもの本にはふりがながあります。Children's books have furigana.
大人は一人千円です。Adults are a thousand yen each.
部屋に人が三人います。There are three people in the room.
名前の漢字を教えてください。Please tell me the kanji for your name.
8 more example sentences
田中さんは東京に住んでいます。Ms Tanaka lives in Tokyo.
日本語の新聞はまだ読めません。I cannot read a Japanese newspaper yet.
生の魚は食べられますか。Can you eat raw fish?
先生は大学で生物を教えています。The teacher teaches biology at a university.
山の上から海が見えます。You can see the sea from the top of the mountain.
辞書で読み方を調べました。I looked the reading up in a dictionary.
この漢字は何と読みますか。How do you read this kanji?
旅行の前に食事をしましょう。Let's have a meal before the trip.
Worth knowing (2)
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The second half of a compound often softens
When two words join, the first sound of the second one often takes a dakuten: 本 and 棚 make 本棚, 手 and 紙 make 手紙. It is common but not predictable enough to apply blind, so each compound is learned with its reading.
本棚に辞書があります。There is a dictionary on the bookshelf.
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The repeat mark
The second sign in 人々 is not a kanji of its own: it repeats the kanji before it, often with a softened sound. 人々 is "people", 時々 is "sometimes", and the repeat mark saves writing a complicated character twice.
時々映画を見ます。I sometimes watch films.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
A learner who has just met 富士山 may read every 山 as san. But the on reading lives in compounds; the kanji on its own is the native word yama. When a kanji stands alone, try the kun reading first.
Learn words, not characters: the word tells you which reading the kanji has.
Your turn
9 exercises on this topic. Your answers are checked in the browser; none of them leaves your device.