LinguaWhy one character has two sounds
When the characters arrived from China, Japanese already had its own words for the things they meant. So each character kept two readings: the Chinese sound it came with, the おんよみ, and the native Japanese word it was matched to, the くんよみ. 人 is ひと on its own and じん or にん inside a compound; 山 is やま alone and さん in a mountain's name.
| Kanji | Alone (kun) | In a compound (on) |
|---|---|---|
| 人 | ひと | にほんじん |
| 山 | やま | ふじさん |
| 川 | かわ | かながわ |
| 大 | おおきい | だいがく |
| 中 | なか | ちゅうごく |
A rule of thumb that works most of the time
A character standing alone, or followed by kana, usually takes its native reading: 山, 大きい, 中. Two or more characters written together usually take the Chinese readings: 大学, 中国, 日本人. The rule is not absolute and Japanese has famous exceptions, but it is right often enough to guess with, and guessing right is how reading speed is built.
つくえの上に大きいはこがありますThere is a big box on the desk.
あの人は山の中にすんでいますThat person lives in the mountains.
Words in this lesson
| Word | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 人 | person | あの人はやさしいです That person is kind. |
| 山 | mountain | 山にのぼります I climb the mountain. |
| 川 | river | 大きい川がながれています A big river flows there. |
| 田 | rice field | 田んぼがひろいです The rice fields are wide. |
| 口 | mouth, opening | 口をあけてください Please open your mouth. |
| 上 | top, above | つくえの上の本 the book on the desk |
| 下 | bottom, below | 下のかいにトイレがあります The toilet is on the floor below. |
| 中 | inside, middle | はこの中にあります It is inside the box. |
| 大 | big | 大きいこうえんであそびます I play in a big park. |
| 小 | small | 小さいへやです It is a small room. |
Exercises
This lesson has 10 exercises in the app:
- multiple choice: 3
- match the pairs: 1
- fill the gap: 2
- build the sentence: 2
- translate the sentence: 1
- listen and type: 1
Try the first one
Which reading does 人 take when it stands alone?
The answer, the other exercises, the audio and your progress are in the app – free at A0 and A1.