TextFugu » Topic: Easy way to distinguish between On-yomi and Kun-yomi

Easy way to distinguish between On-yomi and Kun-yomi

AngelsHalo — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 07:56:54 +0000

Going through the Season 1 kanji, I realized that almost all of the on-yomi sound “Chinese” (not trying to sound racist). Meaning there are a lot of pronunciations similar to mandarin. For Season 1, a lot of them were about the sound お or おう. This maybe something that sound silly, but please let me know if I’ve caught onto something.

Also, what are YOUR ways to distinguish them?

Reply To: Easy way to distinguish between On-yomi and Kun-yomi

koichi — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 09:12:17 +0000

I agree!

Another distinguishing factor is that on’yomi always(?) is only one syllable (even if there’s a long vowel).

Problem is sometimes the kun’yomi is one syllable too, so this doesn’t always work every time :(

Reply To: Reply To: Easy way to distinguish between On-yomi and Kun-yomi

Kelovar — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 15:31:50 +0000

It’s true quite often, but not always. 月 (nichi)、日 (getsu)、夕 (seki)、木 (moku)…. Well these kanji probably have other on’yomi “more Chinese sounding” (I know 月 and 日 have much more on’yomi, and it may be the case for the other ones too…?).

So yeah, it is still true most of the time, but you can’t really use that to generalize. Still, if you happen to remember both the on’yomi and kun’yomi for a given kanji, but you forgot which is which, then indeed, many times the more Chinese sounding one will be the on’yomi ^^

I don’t really have ways to distinguish them other than learning the Textfugu way (learning on’yomi with stories, and kun’yomi with vocab).

Reply To: Easy way to distinguish between On-yomi and Kun-yomi

MisterM2402 [Michael] — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 18:57:07 +0000

If you’re not taking some advanced exam like the Kanji Kentai, does it matter which is which?

Reply To: Easy way to distinguish between On-yomi and Kun-yomi

SinisterT — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 16:08:18 +0000

you mixed up 日・月 :p

Reply To: Easy way to distinguish between On-yomi and Kun-yomi

Kaona — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 22:27:05 +0000

Yeah, sinistertetsuo is right, Kelovar.

月 = getsu (month)
日 = nichi (day (of the month))

Reply To: Easy way to distinguish between On-yomi and Kun-yomi

Sheepy — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 05:34:46 +0000

Um my method is… I learn vocab, and I pick a specific word that uses the 音読み and the 訓読み, and an extra word for any additional readings. Thats about all to be honest.

Like 変

変へん
変更へんこう
変えるかえる

Reply To: Easy way to distinguish between On-yomi and Kun-yomi

Kelovar — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 16:14:33 +0000

Gah that’s what I get for writing all the kana, then all the romaji separately ^^; Oh, that just made me think I have to make a thread about what caused this.