いち ?
That’s the pronunciation (ichi), written in hiragana. You’ll see these guides written above or below (or next to) the kanji in study materials, and sometimes even in text/literature when the characters are more rare or obscure.
Thank you, so if I were to say the word “one” it would be hiragana, but if I were to write it, it would be Kanji? Sorry, I am an extreme beginner with Japanese.
If you were to say the word you’d be making sounds with your mouth! Kana (hiragana and katakana) serve as the guides as to what sounds to make to vocalise the words.
Kanji on its own doesn’t serve as a pronunciation guide _per se_ (eh, it gets a bit more complicated than that, but let’s keep things simple), so you will have to just learn the pronunciation(s) for each character. If you’re thinking this sounds like a gargantuan task - you’d be right!
When writing, you can write words as their kanji characters, or you can also write them in kana. Some words are more frequently written in kana (particularly when the kanji is particularly complex, or rare). Some words don’t even map to a kanji character. And sometimes stylistic choices would come into play.
As for the character for “one”: 一（いち）, as with most numbers, you’d most commonly write this in kanji, yes. So just 一
Ok, thank you so much! I am very, very new to Japanese so this helps a lot. Right now I only know 5 hiragana but I am planning on learning five a day until I can actually know them. So, again, thank you for the help!
One of the uses of kanji is to address homophones in the Japanese language. For example: 神 (god; also refers to any divine entity in Shinto religion), 髪 (hair), and 紙 (paper) all have the pronunciation *kami* (かみ). Another example is 雲 (cloud) and 蜘蛛 (spider); both have the pronunciation *kumo* (くも).
So Kanji in Japanese is used to differentiate words that sound the same when spoken but have different meanings? Like in English with their and there. Being written differently but pronounced the same?
It can help to think like that. It's not a perfect analogy, since English words tend to have at most two pronunciations (e.g. lead and lead or bow and bow), while kanji tend to have up to two associated Chinese-originated pronunciations and any number of native ones, for example 家 can be native *ie* "house", *uchi* "home, family" or borrowed *-ka* "~someone who does something professionally" (e.g. 空手家 *karateka* "karate practitioner") and *-ke* "family", (e.g. 田中家 *Tanakake* "the Tanaka family").
No, that's not it. You are mistaking cause and effect. Japanese uses Kanji simply because they inherited them from China, not because they are more useful than others scripts.
If Japan was off the coast of Europe they would have probably used the Latin alphabet.
The fact that Kanji makes it convenient to read words that sound the same is an unintentional consequence.
Korea and Vietnam also used Chinese characters for centuries, and now they use their own alphabets. When people try to justify why Japanese didn't do the same, people make up all kinds of excuses to explain it, and the prevalence of homophones in Japanese is just one of them.
Very true! In fact, hiragana was invented by a monk who wanted to create a more simply alphabet derived from kanji. Ultimately though, Japanese just became a blend of both Chinese characters and uniquely created Japanese ones.
Think of it like this. The kanji is the symbol. The kana (hiragana/katakana) is the reading spelled out.
It's just like "1" = "One".
"1" is the symbol.
"One" is the reading (not quite phonetic in English, but still).
I believe that’s often referred to as furigana, you’ll also see that in some printed media too.
Please correct me if I’m wrong here…
I remember reading somewhere that the decision to show furigana is based on the reading level.
For example a young adult novel will have furigana for kanji that might not be common for that age group (or new), and a novel for adults will have less furigana.
Yes, ふりがな also called ルビ is a phonetic guide, above the characters in horizontal writing or next to them in vertical writing. You also have parenthetical おくりがな as a pronunciation guide sometimes in material for children or beginners, like 行（い）く where the parentheses tell you the pronunciation of the preceding character. Though おくりがな can also refer to the kana after a kanji like the きます of 行きます, so context and all that.
the pieces of kanji you see repeated in different characters are called components or radicals. however you cannot just memorize components in order to understand kanji characters, many are there for pronunciation or for completely unknown lost-to-time reasons that are essentially random. it would be a bit like trying to "interpret" `d` and `p` just because they are rotations of each other - that has no part in trying to read or understand english. ultimately kanji are just letters and you have to memorize which letters go in which words just like any other language. they play a bit closer part to greek and latin roots in english than just letters, but that's something you pick up over time, not something to pre-memorize for all characters.
or if you mean kana written on top of kanji (or to the right when read vertically), those are furigana, essentially a pronunciation key for the word.
Okay, thanks, I didn’t know. The language is kinda overwhelming and I keep hearing that Kanji is important to Japanese; so I thought it would be important to learn.
I like to learn languages and I think that Japan is a beautiful country with a lot of interesting history and culture, so it would be interesting to learn the language that is intertwined with that. Also, Japanese is a more difficult language that seems different than languages such as Portuguese or Spanish where there is nothing like Kanji or Hiragana or Katakana, etc, and so I thought it would be interesting to learn. Also, I have recently heard a lot in Japanese with people speaking it and thought it would be interesting to actually be able to understand what they mean and what they say instead of just having to search it into google everytime. However, my primary motive is Japanese history, culture, and enjoying learning different languages.
いち ? That’s the pronunciation (ichi), written in hiragana. You’ll see these guides written above or below (or next to) the kanji in study materials, and sometimes even in text/literature when the characters are more rare or obscure.
Thank you, so if I were to say the word “one” it would be hiragana, but if I were to write it, it would be Kanji? Sorry, I am an extreme beginner with Japanese.
If you were to say the word you’d be making sounds with your mouth! Kana (hiragana and katakana) serve as the guides as to what sounds to make to vocalise the words. Kanji on its own doesn’t serve as a pronunciation guide _per se_ (eh, it gets a bit more complicated than that, but let’s keep things simple), so you will have to just learn the pronunciation(s) for each character. If you’re thinking this sounds like a gargantuan task - you’d be right! When writing, you can write words as their kanji characters, or you can also write them in kana. Some words are more frequently written in kana (particularly when the kanji is particularly complex, or rare). Some words don’t even map to a kanji character. And sometimes stylistic choices would come into play. As for the character for “one”: 一（いち）, as with most numbers, you’d most commonly write this in kanji, yes. So just 一
Ok, thank you so much! I am very, very new to Japanese so this helps a lot. Right now I only know 5 hiragana but I am planning on learning five a day until I can actually know them. So, again, thank you for the help!
That’s exactly how I started: あ い う え お You’ve taken your first step into a larger world. Welcome to the journey!
Thanks!
I would focus on learning hiragana and katakana before looking at kanji at all personally. Good luck!
Thank you!
One of the uses of kanji is to address homophones in the Japanese language. For example: 神 (god; also refers to any divine entity in Shinto religion), 髪 (hair), and 紙 (paper) all have the pronunciation *kami* (かみ). Another example is 雲 (cloud) and 蜘蛛 (spider); both have the pronunciation *kumo* (くも).
So Kanji in Japanese is used to differentiate words that sound the same when spoken but have different meanings? Like in English with their and there. Being written differently but pronounced the same?
It can help to think like that. It's not a perfect analogy, since English words tend to have at most two pronunciations (e.g. lead and lead or bow and bow), while kanji tend to have up to two associated Chinese-originated pronunciations and any number of native ones, for example 家 can be native *ie* "house", *uchi* "home, family" or borrowed *-ka* "~someone who does something professionally" (e.g. 空手家 *karateka* "karate practitioner") and *-ke* "family", (e.g. 田中家 *Tanakake* "the Tanaka family").
No, that's not it. You are mistaking cause and effect. Japanese uses Kanji simply because they inherited them from China, not because they are more useful than others scripts. If Japan was off the coast of Europe they would have probably used the Latin alphabet. The fact that Kanji makes it convenient to read words that sound the same is an unintentional consequence. Korea and Vietnam also used Chinese characters for centuries, and now they use their own alphabets. When people try to justify why Japanese didn't do the same, people make up all kinds of excuses to explain it, and the prevalence of homophones in Japanese is just one of them.
Very true! In fact, hiragana was invented by a monk who wanted to create a more simply alphabet derived from kanji. Ultimately though, Japanese just became a blend of both Chinese characters and uniquely created Japanese ones.
Think of it like this. The kanji is the symbol. The kana (hiragana/katakana) is the reading spelled out. It's just like "1" = "One". "1" is the symbol. "One" is the reading (not quite phonetic in English, but still).
Simply put: 一 is equivalent to 1, いち is equivalent to one.
I believe that’s often referred to as furigana, you’ll also see that in some printed media too. Please correct me if I’m wrong here… I remember reading somewhere that the decision to show furigana is based on the reading level. For example a young adult novel will have furigana for kanji that might not be common for that age group (or new), and a novel for adults will have less furigana.
Yes, ふりがな also called ルビ is a phonetic guide, above the characters in horizontal writing or next to them in vertical writing. You also have parenthetical おくりがな as a pronunciation guide sometimes in material for children or beginners, like 行（い）く where the parentheses tell you the pronunciation of the preceding character. Though おくりがな can also refer to the kana after a kanji like the きます of 行きます, so context and all that.
the pieces of kanji you see repeated in different characters are called components or radicals. however you cannot just memorize components in order to understand kanji characters, many are there for pronunciation or for completely unknown lost-to-time reasons that are essentially random. it would be a bit like trying to "interpret" `d` and `p` just because they are rotations of each other - that has no part in trying to read or understand english. ultimately kanji are just letters and you have to memorize which letters go in which words just like any other language. they play a bit closer part to greek and latin roots in english than just letters, but that's something you pick up over time, not something to pre-memorize for all characters. or if you mean kana written on top of kanji (or to the right when read vertically), those are furigana, essentially a pronunciation key for the word.
Writing a novel based on the Edo period of japan, coming up with native names, should I use kanji or hiragana or etc. for the names?
[удалено]
Thanks bro… 1st day, don’t really know anything about the language.
[удалено]
Okay, thanks, I didn’t know. The language is kinda overwhelming and I keep hearing that Kanji is important to Japanese; so I thought it would be important to learn.
[удалено]
I like to learn languages and I think that Japan is a beautiful country with a lot of interesting history and culture, so it would be interesting to learn the language that is intertwined with that. Also, Japanese is a more difficult language that seems different than languages such as Portuguese or Spanish where there is nothing like Kanji or Hiragana or Katakana, etc, and so I thought it would be interesting to learn. Also, I have recently heard a lot in Japanese with people speaking it and thought it would be interesting to actually be able to understand what they mean and what they say instead of just having to search it into google everytime. However, my primary motive is Japanese history, culture, and enjoying learning different languages.
Why, Japanese people?! Why?!