Is there a clear cut explanation of the difference and usage of these versions of kanji? Even the Kanji page has it’s problems, where sometimes it would say something is pronounced using the kun’yomi because it’s alone where as later it says it uses the kun’yomi reading because it has hiragana attached and isn’t alone. To further complicate the problem, sometimes it even says it uses a certain reading because it has kanji attached to it, not because it has hiragana attached.
A friend says that depending on the kanji, it uses it’s on’yomi with hiragana and it’s kun’yomi with no hiragana, or vice versa.
So far it’s been a “learn through experience” ordeal, where learning to use which pronunciation comes from hearing someone else use the words, while also just knowing that the kun’yomi reading is such and such while the on’yomi reading is so and so, rather than learning kun’yomi is such and such and I use it when there’s nothing/hiragana/kanji attached.