Kun and On reading.

[Bloodysadist]

Okay,now I'll explain something which is really easy to be remembered.

 

In the Japanese we have two different readings on the kanji.The one of them is called "kun yomi" (くんよみ) which is the Japanese reading.

 

The other reading is called "on yomi" (オンョミ) which is the Chinese reading.

 

To understand it better I'll give few examples and will explain everything.

 

Let's take the kanji for child "ko(こ）" (子）. When you want to say "a girl" you will use "kun yomi" and it'll look like that: 女の子(おんあのこ{onna no ko}). ["Onna" (女) is the kani for woman.]

And now,if you want to say "a student girl", you won't use "kun yomi",but "on yomi". Here: 女子学生 (じょしがくせい{joshigakusei}). But you can see that "onna" is also with its "on" reading.

 

Talking about the kanji for woman,I'll give you examples and with it. The "kun" reading is "onna" (おんあ),but the "on" reading is "jo" (ジョ).

 

Example: a woman (女{おんあ}　女の人{おんあのひと}). It can be said in two different ways as you can see: "onna" and "onna no hito".

 

Now,when you want to say "she" you won't use "onna",but "jo". Here: "かのじょ”.

 

Hope you understood it. If anyone have questions feel free to ask. ^^

[chiakaiyuki]

Ahh, me gets it now...

 

So 女 can be said either onna or jo, like the words onna no hito 女の人 and kanojo 彼女.

 

Another example, 山本 - yamamoto　本 - hon

So the kun reading of 本 is hon and the on reading is moto? Please say if I am wrong lol.

[Saga]

You are right. (:

[chiakaiyuki]

And is it a rule that the on reading is used if the kanji is at the end of a word, and the kun reading at the beginning, or just a coincedence?

[empress19]

when I learn kanji, it's the part of I hate ==;

[Sloan]

It's hard to memorize the readings. Best bet is example in sentence using combinations. Like for example, letter is tegami. but the paper reading is kami. sometimes k turns g, h to b, and other letter-letter family but NOT ALWAYS. i struggle with that too as i assume one reading over the other when reading kanjis. some have like 10 readings x___x;;

for me, it's pretty much hit or miss. often, it doesn't follow so readings did not help me. i always find unexpected readings when encountering different kanji combinations [3+ usually, sometimes drop some]. even some not included in either reading.

[〜キキ〜]

I think that generally the on-yomi is used when the kanji is part of a compound word and the kun-yomi when it's standalone;

e.g. 学生　= gakusei (student) vs 学ぶ = manabu (to learn)

[rosebud1296]

Right. My sensei usually explains that the onyomi is typically used when you have more than one kanji next to each other. Though if I remember correctly there are exceptions.

 

Learning the onyomi is always the hardest for me, as we learn the kunyomi then words with the kanji in them, and then the onyomi when sensei teaches us a word that uses it (she will put one in if there is an onyomi that we should learn)