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Page 1 of 2 This lesson covers the basics of Kanji. A few kanji are introduced, and the concept of putting together kanji is presented.
Your First Kanji
When starting to read Kanji, many books start learning kanji through
pictures, that may resemble a given kanji. I don't know if that is the
best
way, instead I will start to give you some examples of simple Kanji
that I
believe might be useful for you if going to Japan. You will
recognize them as soon as you open a manga or if you look at commercials or street signs in Japan.
Please do not feel overwhelmed if it looks too complex at first sight. You will have plenty of time to learn it step by step.
| 人 |
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hito, -jin
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|
person, amount of people |
| 口 |
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kuchi, guchi
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|
mouth, exit, entrance
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出
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de(ru)/da(su)
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|
exit, to leave / to let out
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入
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hai(ru) / i(ru)
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enter / insert, put in
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何
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nan, nani
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|
what, (how)
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Let's look at some examples.
3人 です
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sannin desu |
|
(We are) three persons.
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口 です
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kuchi desu |
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(It is the) mouth
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出口 です
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deguchi desu
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(it's the) exit.
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入り口 です
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iriguchi desu
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(it's the) entrance.
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これ は 何 です か。
|
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kore wa nan desu ka
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|
what is this?
|
Kanji + Hiragana
You probably noticed that some words are formed by adding
hiragana after kanjis. This is the way for example verbs are formed.
Here are some examples of words made out of kanji together with
hiragana. The examples are given in -masu form for your convenience.
| 行きます |
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いきます
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ikimasu
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|
to go
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来ます
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きます
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kimasu
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|
to come
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入ります
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はいります
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|
hairimasu
|
|
to enter
|
| 食べます |
|
たべます |
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tabemasu
|
|
to eat
|
| 飲みます |
|
のみます |
|
nomimasu
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|
to drink |
Putting Together Kanji
To make it more complex, each kanji can have several different
pronouncations, often depending on what you put it together with.
Combining kanji can give you new words, for example the kanji for "people" and "mouth" becomes "population" when put together.
| 人 |
|
jin (hito)
|
|
person |
| 口 |
|
kou (kuchi) |
|
mouth |
| 人口 |
|
jinkou |
|
population |
Please note that the order is very critical, if you put them together
the opposite order it may be a completely different word, if it is a
exisiting word at all. We will describe compound kanji more in (much) later chapters.
Other Useful Kanji
Here is a list of some more simple kanji that you probably will see during your first visit in Japan.
田中
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たなか
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Tanaka
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last name (rice field middle)
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田
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|
た
|
ta
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rice field
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中
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なか
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naka
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middle
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山田
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|
やまだ
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Yamada |
last name (mountain field)
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山
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やま
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yama
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mountain
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川
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かわ
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kawa
|
river
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東京
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とうきょう
|
toukyou
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Tokyo
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東
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とう
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tou
|
east
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京
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きょう
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kyou
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capital
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Let's look at some sample sentences using these new kanji.
| 私 は 山田 です |
|
watashi wa yamada desu. |
|
I am (or "my name is") Yamada. |
| 東京に すんで います |
|
toukyou ni sunde imasu. |
|
(I) live in tokyo |
Extras
- The compound kanji are called jukugo, 熟語.
- The word Kanji itself is spelled 漢字.
That's it for this lesson. Practise these kanji, and look out for next lesson.
Gambatte kudasai!
/Johan
kanji
Written by Lucilyn, on 17-11-2008 03:06
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between read and write
Written by johan, on 25-09-2008 09:21
rafael> Right, there are many readings as well as possible meanings for a kanji. Often the base meanings of a kanji are pretty similar though. But we have that in English "homonyms" too.
However, when you put together several kanji they can form a completely new word. Even the order of kanji in a word can make a difference.
For instance try the words 会社 (kaisha) and 社会 (shakai) in the dictionary as well as testing each kanji in the kanji lookup.
Anyway, it all comes down to memorizing a lot of readings and meanings. And then you can probably guess some when you know the basics. For instance, compound kanji words often consist only of the "onyomi" readings. |
between read and write
Written by rafael, on 25-09-2008 09:10
i've heard that in some kanji character there are some difference in the meaning and when you spelled it... in other word in a character sometimes there are double meaning....so then how do we difference them... |
arigatou
Written by nmtruong79, on 08-09-2008 15:33
arigatou gozaimasu |
Kanji...
Written by Kira17, on 14-07-2008 20:35
I've been studying Kanji for a short while, and there are just some of them that I cant bring myself to remember all of the Kun and On readings (I can remember the meaning...) *Sigh* its starting to be a real hassle, and I sometimes find myself re-studying the ones I learned before rather than studying new ones (I try to remember at least 10 a day.) Does anyone have any tips or advice on how I would be able to study/memorize everything better? Its essential for me to get at least 2000 kanji under my belt, since I want to be a translator for japanese/yaoi novels. --- This is a great lesson, btw. It makes as a great review! |
Jouyou kanji
Written by tony, on 30-06-2008 10:55
violet,
It is indeed true that there are 1945 kanji, called the jouyou kanji, which are a basic requirement for adult literacy in Japan. On the other hand, it has been estimated that with a knowledge of 1000 kanji, you can read 90% of the words in most newspaper articles. There are in fact many more than 2000 kanji altogether, and a well-educated nihonjin may know 3500 or more. But the 1945 jouyou ("everyday use") kanji plus a hundred or so kanji used in names are enough for most practical purposes. The good news is that there are many relationships between the kanji, so it's not really like learning a collection of 2000 completely independent pieces of information. Often you can guess at the meaning or sound of a complicated kanji based on the simpler components contained in it.  |
difficult
Written by violet, on 30-06-2008 10:13
it's too complicated! do we have to learn them all! i heard that there is over 2000 kanji! is that true     |
Written by atchara, on 20-06-2008 00:42
i already knw these kanji but its cool
so i dnt forget abt kanji |
Written by tony, on 14-06-2008 14:17
You may want to take a look at some of the software which can make it easier to study kanji. There are links on the following page of the site:
http://www.studyjapanese.org/component/option,com_weblinks/catid,14/Itemid,23/ |
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