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Can anyone help me ?
I still don’t get the idea of Kun’yomi and On’yomi, its like… when do I use Kun and when do i use On. Cuz I am a Hong Kong, so I also learn both Cantonese and Mandarin, and I’ve got Kun and On too. Its like 4 pronunciation for a single Kanji. Please could anyone explain when do we use kun and on. :DKun – Kunyomi – くんよみ – 訓読み – native Japanese readings
On – Onyomi – おんよみ – 音読み – sounds based on (possibly out of date) Chinese pronunciationたべる is the Japanese way to say “to eat”.
食 is a Chinese symbol used to represent the concepts of “eating” and “food”.
The Japanese people (a long time ago), decided to use that Chinese symbol in their own word.
So たべる be came 食べる. With 食 being pronounced た.
That is the native Japanese pronunciation, or kunyomi, for 食.
The kunyomi are typically (but not always) used in words where the the kanji is followed by hiragana.
Like 食べる たべる to eatThe Chinese pronunciation of that same character is something like “shi” (you will know better than me), but the Japanese (long ago, mind you) decided it sounded like しょく. So when they brought the character 食 into Japanese, they gave it that pronunciation as well. This reading (しょく) is not native to Japanese, and is therefore called onyomi. The onyomi are typically (but not always) used when two kanji are placed together in a single word. Like 食堂 しょくどう dining room
**A note to my would be detractors: I know hiragana came into the language after kanji (as they are in fact adapted from them).
Kanji followed by okurigana – tacked-on hiragana to indicate verb and adjective conjugation and the like – always uses kun’yomi. It’s pretty much the only rule in Japanese with no exceptions. Think what you were thinking is that kanji sitting in isolation tend to, but don’t always, use kun’yomi. =)
Also, 食 most likely did have a reading in Chinese that sounded something like “shoku” at the time – it was, as you say, a very long time ago. That’s where kanji with multiple on’yomi come from – repeated introductions at different points in Chinese history.
In any case, Barry, you’ll start to get a feel for it after a while, once you’ve got some vocabulary under your belt. =)
@ Joel – I didn’t know that all okurigana-having words used the kunyomi. Thanks for the new info. My point about “typically but not always” was talking about words like 愛する and 役に立つ. To a beginner, it might not be obvious that the する in 愛する is different from the ちる in 落ちる.
Although, come to think of it, I cant think of another reading for 愛 or 役 anyway…
愛しい (いとしい) – according to denshi jisho, it’s a common word, but I have to admit I’ve never actually encountered it before. Or at least, not that I can think of, though the word does ring some bells for me. Apparently, other kun’yomi include お(しむ), かな(しい), まな and め(でる), though none of those make it onto the common words list.
役 doesn’t have any kun’yomi, but it does have a second on’yomi, えき, for example 服役 (ふくえき).
Yay for multiple readings. =P
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