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Hi guys, just signed up to TextFugu yesterday after completing season one and already feel thrown in at the deep end with the Kanji :D
Just a quick question, I’m having a bit of difficulty with 力. In the Kanji section it says “because the kanji is alone, chances are good that it’s the kun’yomi reading (which it is).” The problem is, so far I’ve understood it to be the exact opposite i.e. when Kanji are on their own you tend to use the On reading and when there is Hiragana attached you use the Kun’yomi reading. Is this just my own oversimplification or just a plain misunderstanding?
Thanks for your time :)
Even though there’s some general rule where it’s kun if it’s on its own and on if it’s together with another, the system is riddled with exceptions.
Could you illustrate your point of it being backwards with some examples? It may be that you’ve noticed lots of the exceptions, or it may be just that you’re confusing yourself somehow haha.
I think where the confusion comes is from this: Yes, generally when the Kanji is alone it usually uses the kun’yomi reading and also when it has hiragana attached to it. But then it is next to other Kanji chances are that it uses the on’yomi reading. Although, there are exceptions to this and most of them tell you when there is an exception.
I’m not sure if I’m 100% right but this is what I got from going through Textfugu.
Cheers for the feedback guys. Ok I guess I should give a couple of examples from Anki
1)
When asked the meaning of 人 on its own I know it’s Person, but the ‘reading’ is にん, じん. So this is the On reading when it’s on its own right?
2) The answer to the meaning of 一 is One, but the ‘reading’ is いち which is also the On reading.
I got all of these correct in Anki, but then I saw the sentence “because the kanji is alone, chances are good that it’s the kun’yomi reading” about 力.
This is kinda why I’ve got confused, not sure if the Anki readings are incorrect, 人 and 一 are anomalies, or much more likely, I’ve just confused myself :D
Thanks again for your replies :)
P.S. How do you guys like to type Kanji? I’m currently just copying and pasting.
If I remember correctly (and I probably don’t, it’s been a long time since I used TF’s kanji section), the Anki deck asks you to answer the on’yomi only. So it’s showing you a kanji (on its own) and saying “what’s the on’yomi reading?”. You’ll have to check that, but I think that might be the case :D
As for typing kanji, I usually just type a word containing the kanji, and then delete any extra characters. If you’ve only just started using TextFugu, you might not have covered the section on typing in Japanese using an IME – have a look for the lesson on that. The method I described for typing kanji is actually similar to how Japanese people refer to them in speech: to talk about the kanji 大, they’d say 「 「大きい」 の 「おお」 」, like we might say in English ” ‘-ness’ as in ‘kindess’ ” or “the ‘un’ of ‘unbelievable’ “.
Edit: I’ve no idea if nesting brackets like that is right; it looks weird… :S
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This reply was modified 11 years, 8 months ago by
MisterM2402 [Michael].
Oh wow if it’s as simple as that then I’ll just press on I guess :D Guessing TF/Anki isn’t the best place to learn Kanji then?
I think MisterM is correct about the Kanji deck only asking about the On’yomi, can’t say 100% but it’s close.
人 uses the kun’yomi reading when it’s by itself; ひと. It’s best just to learn words and pick up a ‘feel’ for the kanji over time, so don’t stress out about which readings are which.
Okie dokie Astral, thanks for the advice :)
Aye, when we say “kanji on their own use kun’yomi” it means “on their own with respect to other kanji” – kanji with okurigana attached is still on its own. Hiragana makes a poor substitute for having other kanji buddies to hang around with. =P
As for typing kanji, have you got an IME installed? Or are you saying it’s just too much trouble to use?
Ahhhh that clears things up Joel, I thought Hiragana counted! Poor Hiragana :( Never tried it, it give it a shot now :)
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This reply was modified 11 years, 8 months ago by
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