How to choose the right kanji from several choices?


I do know that there are many questions like that all over the web and some on
japanese.stackexchange as well. Nevertheless, as far as I can remember I could
not find any that explained how to choose the right kanji when there are
multiple choices (I mean: 飛ぶ "fly" vs. 跳ぶ "leap"; 分かる (the generic one) vs. 判る
"distinguish" vs. 解る "understand", and countless others like 暖かい・温かい, 下ろす・降ろす,
etc.).

The only place where I have found some explanation is in the MS IME for
Japanese. But it is not very convenient because I am not always on Windows and
when I do handwriting I do not have that aid.

So I am asking whether you know a book, a paper or whatever else that will
describe the differences between those words.




Here is a publication put out by the 文化審議会, which is a part of 文部科学省 in the
Japanese government.

<http://www.bunka.go.jp/kokugo_nihongo/bunkasingi/pdf/ijidoukun_140221.pdf>

At a glance it has a lot of good stuff but as @snailboat mentions it is
limited to the kanji and readings shown on the
[常用漢字表](http://www.bunka.go.jp/kokugo_nihongo/pdf/jouyoukanjihyou_h22.pdf), so
you won't find things like 判る and 解る. For joyo kanji, though, this should be
the government standard.

The term for this is 異字同訓{いじどうくん} (Different kanji, same reading) so you can
search other places based on that and get plenty of help.




Here is a publication put out by the 文化審議会, which is a part of 文部科学省 in the
Japanese government.

<http://www.bunka.go.jp/kokugo_nihongo/bunkasingi/pdf/ijidoukun_140221.pdf>

At a glance it has a lot of good stuff but as @snailboat mentions it is
limited to the kanji and readings shown on the
[常用漢字表](http://www.bunka.go.jp/kokugo_nihongo/pdf/jouyoukanjihyou_h22.pdf), so
you won't find things like 判る and 解る. For joyo kanji, though, this should be
the government standard.

The term for this is 異字同訓{いじどうくん} (Different kanji, same reading) so you can
search other places based on that and get plenty of help.

