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So I’m going through Season 2 thinking “Hey, kanji isn’t so bad so far” and then I hit a little snag. Earlier in the season I learned the kanji 七 and its two readings しち and なな(つ). When I was doing the past tense nouns practice I read “七人 じゃありませ” as “Nana ri…” but TextFugu’s audio read it as “Shichi ri…”
But I thought that the kun reading was used to define quantities. Is that not the case?
Context specific?
Confused :$Firstly, it’s neither nanari or shichiri: the only “people” counters to end with ri are hitori and futari, then it goes sannin, yonnin, etc. Are you *sure* TF audio pronounces it “shichiri”? If it does, definitely email Koichi about it and get it fixed.
Secondly, 七人 is read nananin (or shichinin too, I can’t quite remember).
Thirdly, don’t worry about the readings too much, or when to use kun and when to use on. There *are* very rough rules (as I’m sure Joel will be happy to post), but, as you can see with the counters, the system is riddled with exceptions, so it’s not really worth specifically learning the readings. Instead of learning 3 readings for some kanji, learn 3 words with that kanji in them. You’ll eventually remember readings in a more indirect way as you learn more words.
AnonymousKoichi, you should have covered this in your lessons already!!!
Thought Tsetycoon had a better summary of the “very rough rules” written somewhere. I can’t do copy-and-paste here. =P
General rule of thumb is characters on their own use kun’yomi, while characters in bunches use on’yomi, but yeah, there’s so many exceptions that it’s about as useful a rule as the old “I before E”. However, characters with attached okurigana – hiragana stapled onto the end of verbs and adjectives to indicate conjugations and tenses – always use kun’yomi, no exceptions.
Like Michael said, though, just learn words instead of readings.
I couldn’t remember who it was that always jumped in about the rules of kanji readings XD It was most likely to be Joel, I thought, since he jumps in on EVERYTHING :D
First off, thanks everybody for helping out :)
I misheard 人 as “ri” the first time but it is actually “nin” so I apologise.
Earlier in the season Koichi wrote that the kun reading is used to define quantities generally which is why I was confused about whether it was “shichi” or “nana”. I know there are no concrete rules about on’yomi and kun’yomi readings so I’ll go with the flow.
Thanks again everybody!The readings for 七 tend to be fairly interchangeable.
For me it’s always しちにん。 Mainly because of 七人の侍。 I didn’t actually know you could do ななにん before I saw this thread, but I guess it makes sense.
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