Home › Forums › The Japanese Language › Kun'yomi vs On'yomi

This topic contains 1 reply, has 2 voices, and was last updated by  Joel 9 years, 11 months ago.

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  • July 10, 2015 at 2:47 am #48113

    Captain Daikon
    Member

    Okay for awhile there, I thought I knew when you use one or the other, but as I started to get into more of the Kanji vocab, I’m getting super confused. Here are two quotes from the vocab sections of 小 and 山:

    小: “小さい – This is the kun’yomi reading – you can tell because of the hiragana attached to the kanji part.”
    山: “山 – Since it’s a vocab consisting of a single kanji and all alone, you can usually guess it uses the kun’yomi reading.”

    Okay so, uh, when exactly is On’yomi used? Because every time up until now where I thought I had a handle on it, it would just be like “nope”

    July 11, 2015 at 4:44 am #48118

    Joel
    Member

    You tend to use on’yomi when you’ve got multiple kanji stuck together forming one word. For example… um… 山水 (さんすい). There’s about a thousand and one exceptions, but believe me when I say you’ll get a feel for it over time.

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