Advanced Japanese: Kanji
Kanji originally came from China to Japan. The term “kanji” literally means “Han characters” or “Chinese characters” and it is identical to the characters in China to describe their writing. Kanji are mainly used to describe names and nouns. When used in verbs and adjectives they mostly are written in combination with hiragana. Most sentences include kanji as well as hiragana.
Kanji have two sorts of readings, i.e. ways of being pronounced: “on” readings and “kun” readings.
Kanji have two sorts of readings, i.e. ways of being pronounced: “on” readings and “kun” readings.
- The “on” readings are based loosely on the original Chinese pronunciation of the kanji, and are typically used when a kanji is part of a compound, i.e. written with at least one other kanji to form a word.
- The “kun” reading is used when kanji are used on their own, either as complete nouns in their own right or as adjective and verb stems.
Video: The first kanji
Workbook
There are many workbooks available in shops or online. Here is a free version I found from the University of Passau.
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