Compound? how to read


Since every kanji has an inherent meaning when I do know to read a compound?
Do I read each kanjis meaning individually or does it somehow make a new
meaning? What if the the kanji happens to be next to each other?

Like 明日 so, “bright day” wtf?




明日 is a **single word** meaning "tomorrow", not "bright day". This combination
also has a special reading, あした (see
[jukujikun](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/24513/5010)). So when 明 and 日
are combined together, it produces a new **word** whose meaning and reading
are unpredictable even if you know the basic meaning and readings of each
kanji.

Just as you parse English sentences based on words, people parse Japanese
sentences based on words. As is the case with any language, words may have
tricky meanings or readings, and you have to memorize them one by one.

Note that similar things happen also in English. If you combine "awe" and
"some", you get "awesome", but its meaning is unpredictable. The same is true
for words like "wonderful", "however", "nevertheless" and so on. All we can do
is memorize their meanings without worrying too much about their components.

That said, many compounds have straightforward meanings and readings, so
you'll have to remember only tricky ones. For example, "volcano" is 火山 in
Japanese, which is fairly easy.

For details, please read the following questions.

  * [日曜日，the different meanings and pronunciations of 日](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/68850/5010)
  * [Can kanji compounds be formed arbitrarily?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/17996/5010)

