Deciphering Kanji


The kanji are very confusing to me. Not quite sure how to read them
phonetically. Of course ' I am just getting familiar with katakana and
hiragana. Is there a way to decipher kanji into hiragana? Or at least
recognize the phonetics?




Starting from zero I'm afraid there isn't, however once you have learned a
couple dozen you'll start to notice phonetic elements that some characters
have in common.

For example:

  * All the following are pronounced ドウ because they contain 同: 同、胴、銅、洞
  * All the following are pronounced チュウ because they contain 中: 中、仲、忠
  * All the following are pronounced チョウ because they contain 丁: 丁、町、庁

The reliability of these groupings is not necessarily universal. There are
some characters which are used as phonetic elements within other characters,
but have a different base reading themselves:

  * 予 is pronounced ヨ, but when serving as a phonetic marker it usually is pronounced ジョ: 序、抒、舒

There are also others that are false friends (a group exists, but apparent
members fall outside of it), or where the same element can be used to mark two
different sounds depending on the character.

Another thing to remember about this is that it'll usually point you to just
one reading of a kanji character—not necessarily the most common one, and
always an on-reading. For kun-readings and other on-readings, your best bet is
to learn words that use them and practice using them while they're fresh in
your mind. If you approach kanji unafraid, you'll find they stick in your
passive memory (e.g. recall) relatively easily over time.




Starting from zero I'm afraid there isn't, however once you have learned a
couple dozen you'll start to notice phonetic elements that some characters
have in common.

For example:

  * All the following are pronounced ドウ because they contain 同: 同、胴、銅、洞
  * All the following are pronounced チュウ because they contain 中: 中、仲、忠
  * All the following are pronounced チョウ because they contain 丁: 丁、町、庁

The reliability of these groupings is not necessarily universal. There are
some characters which are used as phonetic elements within other characters,
but have a different base reading themselves:

  * 予 is pronounced ヨ, but when serving as a phonetic marker it usually is pronounced ジョ: 序、抒、舒

There are also others that are false friends (a group exists, but apparent
members fall outside of it), or where the same element can be used to mark two
different sounds depending on the character.

Another thing to remember about this is that it'll usually point you to just
one reading of a kanji character—not necessarily the most common one, and
always an on-reading. For kun-readings and other on-readings, your best bet is
to learn words that use them and practice using them while they're fresh in
your mind. If you approach kanji unafraid, you'll find they stick in your
passive memory (e.g. recall) relatively easily over time.

