can someone explain to me what onyomi and kunyomi are? - Feed Post by jshin28
can someone explain to me what onyomi and kunyomi are?
posted by jshin28
Comments 4
I read somewhere that the Onyomi is the Chinese reading for a kanji and the Kunyomi is the Japanese reading.
Although some words must be used in their Onyomi version while talking japanese.- I'm sure there is more to this but that's all I know.
- I was curious so I found this on the net, hope it can help you :)
To Remember About On’Yomi:
-Chinese reading of a kanji
-Used when there is no hiragana attached to the kanji
-Often consist of multi-kanji compound words, like 空港 (see, no hiragana attached! This is kuukou)
-Can sound erudite, wordy and snobby if you use these words too much.
To Remember About Kun’Yomi:
-It’s the Japanese reading (i.e. the pronunciations come from the Japanese language).
-Often has hiragana (also known as okurigana) attached to the end. Words like 食べます, 赤い, and 怖い are examples (okurigana in red).
-You won’t find kun’yomi readings when it comes to multi-kanji words as often (though people’s names can be an exception… not to mention all the other exceptions as well).
-Yeah, you gotta study if you want to know how to read kanji, especially since each kanji can be used in so many different ways. 
Thank you so much!
