Today I learned that kanji are even more complicated than I originally though! From what I understand, if a kanji is by itself in a sentence, it's read the kunyomi way, and if it's in combination with other kanji, it's read the onyomi way 90% of the time.... WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER 10% ;____;
Wow 21/24! すごい！You know, when I was making the quiz, I didn't know the meaning of some phrases in the Other category.
You're right - from what I understand, onyomi (音読み- "read by sound") is to read as its pronounced in Chinese. As you might have already known, kanji is imported from China. Since Chinese vocabulary is often composed in two (or more) kanjis, when the kanji-combo takes the meaning of its original Chinese meaning, it is read the onyomi way. Whereas kunyomi (訓読み) is read when a kanji is used for its meaning in Japanese
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My manga obsession helped a lot with the Other category -- I've seen すねをかじる, のどから手が出る, and へそを曲げる depicted as images already! The last two are very similar to sayings in Russian and Hungarian, so I really only got 舌を巻く right by process of elimination. :">
That's really helpful, thank you! I'm basically still very confused about all of it, but I am lucky to have infinite patience when it comes to learning something, so I will take it slowly and double back as necessary, and hopefully within the next couple of years I'll have at least the common kanji and their readings mastered well enough to say I understand them and can use them.
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Today I learned that kanji are even more complicated than I originally though! From what I understand, if a kanji is by itself in a sentence, it's read the kunyomi way, and if it's in combination with other kanji, it's read the onyomi way 90% of the time.... WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER 10% ;____;
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You're right - from what I understand, onyomi (音読み- "read by sound") is to read as its pronounced in Chinese. As you might have already known, kanji is imported from China. Since Chinese vocabulary is often composed in two (or more) kanjis, when the kanji-combo takes the meaning of its original Chinese meaning, it is read the onyomi way. Whereas kunyomi (訓読み) is read when a kanji is used for its meaning in Japanese ( ... )
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That's really helpful, thank you! I'm basically still very confused about all of it, but I am lucky to have infinite patience when it comes to learning something, so I will take it slowly and double back as necessary, and hopefully within the next couple of years I'll have at least the common kanji and their readings mastered well enough to say I understand them and can use them.
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The kanjis of 見積もり[みつもり], meaning quote or estimation, are entirely read as its kunyomi way.
Hope that helps!
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But anyway, this is actually a really fun way to get to know Japanese language. A fun way to learn.
Another quizzes like this about onomatopoeia would be cool, I think. If you don't mind XD
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Onomatopoeia is fun ♥ I need to think a bit about how to make the quiz, though. :-)
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I hope you'd enjoy the next one! :-)
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