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As everyone learning Japanese and their dog knows, someone needs to know 2000-ish kanji to be able to read 99% of newspapers, literature, Japanese signs and advertisements, etc.
However, I do have one question: does that number include combination kanji? Or are the hundreds (if not thousands) of commonly used combinations in addition to the 2000 kanji?
If you by combination kanji mean words that use 2 kanji or more, then there are a few thousand you will have to learn, since majority of words use 2 kanji or more.
Since 2010, the official number of Jōyō kanji is now 2,136. They consist of 1,006 kanji taught in primary school (the kyōiku kanji) and 1,130 additional kanji taught in secondary school.
If you learn all of those, figuring out the meaning of combination kanji (JUKUGO), shouldn’t be too hard. However, with JUKUGO, the readings won’t always use on’yomi as some use kun’yomi.
That ~2000 number is single kanji only, to read newspapers and such you will have to know many kanji combinations, most common combos are words with 2-3 kanji or kanji + kana. (and sometimes 2 kanji + kana)
AnonymousThere are a lot of Jukugo (compound Kanji), so you will probably learn them based on the Kanji that you learn beforehand.
99% is way too high. I come across kanji not in the 常用漢字 very often. For instance the pretty well known RTK has RTK3 which has you do about an additional 1000 which while not nearly as important as the standard use kanji they are commonly used and you’ll see them in day to day. However it only makes up for maybe 10-20% of kanji you’ll use so you need motivation to do all that extra kanji. As for your initial question yeah these are all the kanji you need to know that ALSO make up combinations.
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