Among people learning Japanese, kanji are infamous for their difficulty. They work entirely differently from the two other writing systems (hiragana and katakana). Not only that, but even if you can remember the meaning of a kanji, its pronunciations and in which situation a particular pronunciation is used is often unintuitive.
However, if you want to “master” Japanese, you’ll need to be able to read words with kanji. And while kanji is initially a challenge to many, as you progress you’ll come to recognize more of its benefits, as well as how it contributes to making Japanese a rich and unique language!
The three writing systems
Japanese uses three writing systems: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. The first two are syllabic systems, meaning each character has a set syllable sound. A ら character will always sound like “rah.” (This is slightly different from English, where “ra” has a different sound in the words “ran” and “raw.”)
Hiragana and katakana have the same pronunciation rules, yet different purposes in the language. Hiragana is the base or default system. Katakana is primarily used for loanwords, but can also be used for emphasis.
Kanji on the other hand are logograms, meaning each symbol represents an idea or meaning. Whenever you see the kanji 人, it means “person” or “people.” The meaning stays consistent. In return though, the pronunciation can change based on context.
For those not used to ideograms, kanji feels unfamiliar. Some people have even wondered why (considering the syllabic systems allow you to pronounce every word) kanji is necessary. To better understand why kanji is so integral to Japanese, first I want to delve into its background.
The history of kanji
The characters that would become “kanji” originally came from China almost 2,000 years ago. That’s a long history!
If you were unaware, the Chinese writing system is entirely logographic, which means every character has a meaning. This had important implications for Japanese, which came to adopt these characters.
Prior to the introduction of Chinese characters, Japanese actually had no writing system of its own. Thus Japanese writing started with kanji (and not with the “easier” hiragana and katakana)! As they adopted Chinese characters, they largely kept the meanings the same, but mapped them onto their already existing spoken words. This decided the initial pronunciation of those kanji in Japanese.
It soon became apparent that only using Chinese characters wasn’t the best fit for Japanese, since they don’t allow for conjugation. This is why syllabic characters were added.
Hiragana and katakana were actually developed by adapting the shape of kanji! Kanji that shared the pronunciation of the desired sound were used but their shape was altered. The most obvious example of this is the kanji 世, which has a possible pronunciation of “se” and was adapted into the hiragana せ and the katakana セ. If you’re curious about the origin of other kana, check out the charts here.
Remember that this process started thousands of years ago. Language can go through many changes in that time span, including the adoption of new words. This is doubly true when there’s significant cultural exchange, as was happening between China and Japan.
When we receive words from other cultures, we may adopt them into our language almost as-is in regard to pronunciation and/or spelling. These are called loanwords. (This happened in English with the words “karaoke” and “tofu.”)
Japan in this time received several new words from China. Naturally these words already had a Chinese pronunciation, but were also written with those same logographic characters. How did those words then get adopted into Japanese? By keeping the same “spelling” with the same characters, but also reflecting the original pronunciation.
It didn’t matter that Japanese and Chinese sound quite different, resulting in one character possibly having vastly different pronunciations, because the Chinese writing system emphasizes the meaning of its characters. (Even within Chinese, the same character can have different pronunciations.) This is the reason why a single kanji can have multiple possible pronunciations.
Unique aspects of kanji
Now that you know the origin of kanji – that it’s from Chinese writing adapted into the Japanese language – that goes a long way to explaining its quirks and benefits.
Most writing systems are based around pronunciation. However, the Chinese writing system, and thus kanji, are based around meaning.
This causes an interesting difference when people from different backgrounds read. Usually when an English speaker comes across a new word, they’ll first attempt the pronunciation and maybe guess the meaning from context. However, when a Chinese speaker encounters a new word, they might have no clue about the pronunciation, but can still make an educated guess about the meaning. (Since Japanese is a mix of writing systems, you’d encounter both kinds of experiences.)
It might seem strange to know the meaning of a word while having no idea how to say it, but that’s actually common with Chinese and Japanese speakers! This is especially true when a Chinese person learns Japanese, and vice-versa (because they may pronounce the same characters differently).
This can be a potential benefit. There are cases when it’s more important to know the meaning of a word over its pronunciation, such as when trying to buy food – you don’t need to say the name of an item you’re buying at the grocery store, but you probably want to know what’s in it!
People also argue that kanji allows for more effective skim reading. You can just look at the kanji and glean the overall meaning of the passage.
One more advantage to kanji is they significantly diminish confusion with homophones. Homophones are two or more words that sound the same. For example, “night” and “knight” are homophones.
In the case of “night” and “knight,” their different spellings allow you to know which word is which. However, there are also homophones with the same spelling. For example, there’s “right” meaning “the opposite of left,” but there’s also “right” as in “correct.” The only way to know which is “right” is from context.
When there are homophones in Japanese, though, they can usually easily be distinguished by looking at their kanji. For example:
- “Hana” can mean either “flower” or “nose,” but the kanji for flower = 花, while the kanji for nose = 鼻.
- “Yasashii” can mean either “kind/nice” or “easy/simple,” but with kanji the word for kind/nice = 優しい, while easy/simple = 易しい.
- “Sentaku” can mean either “laundry” or “choice,” but the kanji for laundry = 洗濯, while the kanji for choice = 選択.
While we’re on the topic of pronunciation, it’s time to circle back to our main point – kanji’s multiple pronunciations.
Multiple Readings of Kanji
The multiple possible pronunciations a kanji can have are called “kanji readings.”
While we know the background of why these multiple readings exist, when trying to learn a new concept, it’s often useful to look at examples. Let’s delve into the 人 character, which means “person/people.”
You may have heard these words before: “hito,” “futari,” “amerikajin,” and “ningen.”
- “Hito” = “person/people”
- “Futari” = “two people”
- “Amerikajin” = “American,” or you could rephrase that to “person from America”
- “Ningen” = “human,” which is a more scientific-sounding way to refer to a person
While the sounds between these words don’t overlap, all four somehow refer to people, and all four use the 人 kanji. This is because 人 actually has different kanji readings!
Kun’yomi vs. On’yomi
The main types of kanji readings are called “kun’yomi” and “on’yomi.”
Remember that the origins of kanji pronunciations come from Japanese and Chinese. These two types of kanji reading therefore come directly from one of the two languages; kun’yomi readings come from Japanese, and on’yomi readings come from Chinese.
You can think of kun’yomi as being “purely Japanese,” while on’yomi can be quite close to the Chinese they originally came from. For example, 天 is pronounced “tian” in Chinese and has the on’yomi “ten” in Japanese, and 水 is pronounced “shui” in Chinese and has the on’yomi “sui” in Japanese.
When you look up a kanji in a dictionary (such as takoboto or jisho), it should clearly list which readings belong to which category. For an added distinction, on’yomi are often written in katakana, as they originate from China and thus are “foreign” pronunciations.
Here is the result for the 人 character.
source: https://takoboto.jp/
Within the results for “kun” (kun’yomi), we see “hito” and “ri,” and within the results for “on” (on’yomi) we see “jin” and “nin.”
Here’s a chart to demonstrate the sound of 人 in these different words:
Japanese (w/ kanji) | Romaji | Reading |
人 | hito | kun’yomi ➞ hito |
二人 | futari | kun’yomi ➞ ri |
アメリカ人 | amerikajin | on’yomi ➞ jin |
人間 | ningen | on’yomi ➞ nin |
This clearly shows that the same character can have multiple readings. But how do you know which reading to use in which situation?
Determining kanji readings
For many people, memorizing kanji readings is the most difficult part of studying Japanese. Fortunately, there are general guidelines to make them easier to remember. However, keep in mind that with any rule there is often an exception.
The most important rule
The main general rule is this: When a word comprises a single kanji or is combined with hiragana, you typically use kun’yomi. On the other hand, when a word is comprised of a combination of two or more kanji and includes no hiragana, you typically use on’yomi.
As we saw with the 人 character, a kanji can have multiple kun’yomi and on’yomi. However, the majority of kanji essentially have one kun’yomi and one on’yomi (at least as commonly used readings). This means you’ll know which reading to use most of the time!
We can see this with these kanji: 水, 休, and 車. All three have one reading each for kun’yomi and on’yomi. (It may seem like 休 has multiple kun’yomi, but actually they’re all “yasu.” with different possible subsequent hiragana.)
As you look at this chart, keep the main rule in mind:
Japanese (w/ kanji) | Romaji | Reading | Meaning |
水 | mizu | kun’yomi ➞ mizu | water |
水泳 | suiei | on’yomi ➞ sui | swimming |
水族館 | suizokukan | on’yomi ➞ sui | aquarium |
休む | yasumu | kun’yomi ➞ yasu. | to rest |
休日 | kyuujitsu | on’yomi ➞ kyuu | holiday |
休憩 | kyuukei | on’yomi ➞ kyuu | a break |
車 | kuruma | kun’yomi ➞ kuruma | car |
電車 | densha | on’yomi ➞ sha | train |
駐車場 | chuushajou | on’yomi ➞ sha | parking lot |
You may notice that more of the words use the on’yomi than the kun’yomi. This makes sense since on’yomi are typically used when you combine multiple kanji to make words – and that combination allows for more complexity, and thus more new words!
- You may also notice that the kun’yomi overall seem to be longer than the on’yomi. I do think this is a general pattern, but is in no way universal.
Names are exceptions
While I’ve just introduced the most important overall guideline, there is an important exception with its own rule to establish: Japanese names.
Names of people almost always use kun’yomi, regardless of whether the name is a combination of only kanji. (Names of places sometimes use kun’yomi, sometimes on’yomi. “Ōsaka” uses kun’yomi, Tōkyō uses on’yomi.) The reason is because these names are “native Japanese” words.
Thus, be cautious when you see combinations like 田中 and 山本. These are names and use the kun’yomi (田中 = Tanaka, 山本 = Yamamoto).
Hints from okurigana
With the verb 休む (“yasumu,” included in the chart) we see the hiragana む at the end. Characters like these that “accompany” a kanji are called “okurigana.”
Japanese dictionaries takoboto and jisho put a (.) mark before the okurigana. For example, the kun’yomi for 休 is listed as “yasu.mu,” so the kanji covers the “yasu” part and the “mu” sticks out (休む). The kun’yomi for 食 is “ta.beru,” so the kanji covers the “ta” part and the “beru” sticks out (食べる).
Since okurigana = hiragana accompanying a kanji, the presence of okurigana usually signifies you’ll use a kun’yomi reading rather than on’yomi.
Okurigana are necessary to do conjugations, since the pronunciation covered by a kanji can’t easily be altered, yet hiragana can easily be changed. This means okurigana are important for verbs and i-adjectives. (The rules of okurigana don’t apply to suru-verbs since they’re comprised of a noun + suru.)
To better demonstrate, let’s look at some conjugations of “yasumu”:
Conjugated form (w/ kanji) | Romaji | Category |
休む | yasumu | dictionary form |
休みます | yasumimasu | polite form |
休まない | yasumanai | negative form |
休んで | yasunde | te form |
休める | yasumeru | potential form |
There are no problems with changing the okurigana to “.manai,” “.meru,” etc. This is great because conjugations are so central to Japanese grammar!
Okurigana can also become a vital hint when you’re unsure which kun’yomi to use. One common example is with the kanji 出. It has the possible kun’yomi of “de.ru” and “da.su”. If you aren’t paying attention to the okurigana, you may be at a loss when you see the 出 kanji in a word with hiragana. However, if you keep in mind that any conjugation of “da.su” will have an “s” sound, you can easily narrow the choice down:
Conjugated form (w/ kanji) | Romaji | Category |
出す | dasu | dictionary form |
出さない | dasanai | negative form |
出して | dashite | te form |
出る | deru | dictionary form |
出ない | denai | negative form |
出て | dete | te form |
The differences between 出さない vs. 出ない (dasanai vs. denai) and 出して vs. 出て (dashite vs. dete) may not be obvious at first glance, but as you become more comfortable with conjugations, it will become second nature to check the okurigana and figure out which reading to use from there.
- In case the word is only a single kanji with no okurigana, just look for the kun’yomi result that matches! For example, 上 has the possible readings of “ue” and “a.geru.” If there are no okurigana, it’s “ue.” If the okurigana starts with “ge,” the reading of the kanji will be “a.”
Hints from shape
This guideline mainly applies to learning the on’yomi and is an aspect of kanji that carried over from the original Chinese.
Kanji that have shapes in common will often have the same on’yomi. Perhaps the most well-known example of this is 五 and 語 both having the on’yomi “go.”
Other examples include:
寺, 時, and 持 all have the on’yomi “ji”
令, 冷, and 齢 all have the on’yomi “rei”
官, 管, and 館 all have the on’yomi “kan”
義, 儀, and 議 all have the on’yomi “gi”
Beware dakuten changes
Sometimes words that are a combination of kanji will have the second kanji’s reading change to a “dakuten” reading.
Dakuten are the little lines that look like quotation marks that you can add to many hiragana and katakana. For example, if you add dakuten to か (ka) it becomes が (ga).
If you check the possible readings for a given kanji, sometimes it will give the reading with dakuten as a separate possible reading – but sometimes not. For example, the possible readings for 国 that are given in the dictionary are: kun’yomi = kuni, on’yomi = koku. However, if you know the word for “China” in Japanese, it’s actually “chuugoku,” so “koku” changed to “goku.” This can only happen to the second part of a word though, never the first. (This is called “rendaku.”)
More examples of this can be seen in combinations with the kanji for “bag/sack.” Its kun’yomi is listed as “fukuro,” but the word for paper bag is “kamibukuro” (紙袋) and the word for glove is “tebukuro” (手袋).
Vocabulary is essential
While there are general principles to keep in mind when learning a new kanji, there are countless exceptions. In fact, the more “basic” a kanji is, the more exceptions it probably has!
The kanji 日 means “day/sun” and has these readings listed: kun’yomi = hi, bi, or ka, on’yomi = nichi or jitsu. However, there are words that use this kanji with readings that don’t match any of those results. For example: 日本 = nihon = Japan, 今日 = kyou = today, and 明日 = ashita = tomorrow. (The readings differ so much because meaning was prioritized over pronunciation.)
At the end of the day, the only way to be sure of the kanji reading within a word is to learn that word. This demonstrates how important it is when learning kanji to not just memorize the dictionary entry, but learn kanji within the practical context of new vocabulary words.
Strategies for learning kanji readings
The truth is that learning kanji takes a good bit of time and effort. You can actually get an estimate of how much time and effort it takes by comparing how many hours Chinese speakers need to study Japanese before passing the Japanese standardized test compared to how many hours other language speakers must study:
The higher level you get with Japanese, kanji study can add up to thousands of hours!
I do suspect, however, that many of those hours are due to studying kanji inefficiently. With the strategies and resources that I recommend, it will make the process more effective.
Be thorough with each kanji
It may seem like a lot of work, but when learning a new kanji, I recommend going through all these steps:
- Write the character several times. This will give you muscle memory and better visual recognition.
- Write all possible meanings of the kanji.
- Write the important kun’yomi and on’yomi, but keep them separate and clearly labeled. (You’ll know a reading is important if it shows up in common words or several words.)
- Write several vocabulary words, including their kanji, reading, and meaning. It would also be good to include an example sentence. For additional practice, write the words several times and say their readings as you do.
Here’s an example with one kanji:
Rather than going through many kanji quickly, it’s better to lay down strong foundations with kanji one by one. Even if you only study a couple kanji a day, this method will certainly help you in the long run.
How to find kanji vocabulary
If you’re already studying from a textbook, you should be provided with useful vocabulary for each kanji that you learn. This is the case with popular textbook series like Genki and Japanese from Zero.
However, if you’re not using a textbook or you’d like more vocabulary, my recommended method is to search your target kanji in a dictionary (takoboto or jisho). You’ll get results that use kun’yomi, on’yomi and even irregular readings. Don’t feel that you have to write every result though – the lists are nearly endless! Instead, stick to ones that say “common,” have many example sentences for reference, and seem like words you can write and use.
Make flashcards
If you were thorough with your kanji study, then you can focus your drill practice on vocabulary words and their readings. This way the flashcard making process will be more straightforward (word on the front, pronunciation and meaning on the back)!
You can of course make physical flashcards, but if you’d like virtual ones, Anki is popular among Japanese learners. There you can even find other people’s decks of Japanese vocabulary. Anki’s strong point is the focus on spaced repetition.
I’ve also used cram.com. With this resource, you can generate short quizzes based on your flashcards.
Kanji resources
You can find more kanji resources and other Japanese resources on this huge list, but I’ll summarize the main ones.
I’ve mentioned the Japanese dictionaries takoboto and jisho several times. There are many benefits to these resources, so I definitely recommend trying them out and exploring! The takoboto app is even better than the website, but unfortunately is Android only. For an Apple alternative, try “imiwa.”
Wanikani is the most comprehensive kanji learning app. It initially focuses on the meanings, but then quizzes you on words containing the kanji as you learn them – including the pronunciation. The best free alternative to Wanikani is Kanji Koohii, which includes vocabulary for each kanji if you click “dictionary” (although the choices are hit-or-miss).
Most Japanese textbooks include kanji practice as you go, but if you’d like a dedicated kanji textbook, Kanji Look and Learn is a great option.
However, the best resource is learning from someone who knows kanji. There are numerous reasons for this, but the most obvious one is that you can ask questions! Also, they can correct you to ensure you’re not making mistakes that will become bad habits.
Get help with learning kanji
It’s normal to struggle with learning kanji. Its origins are a language vastly different from our own, and you have to essentially learn a new way of thinking to master them.
On the other hand, the meaning-based nature of kanji has unique benefits. You’ll also find that developing good kanji habits will allow you to learn new vocabulary more efficiently! Still, irregular pronunciations can be a barrier.
To best overcome the difficulties of kanji, try meeting with a Japanese tutor. They can give you tips and mnemonics, steer you away from common pitfalls, and generally encourage you and keep you accountable. You can trust that a tutor knows the best way to approach this challenge and, especially if you’ve been overwhelmed by kanji before, that’s invaluable.
If you’re interested in finding a tutor who will be a good fit for your needs and goals, you can find Japanese experts on Wyzant. Best of luck with your studies!