well i've had a problem as in i dont know which part of japanese words go for each kanji let show you and example

小学校= shougakkou

as you can see there are three character for this one word but i can't find which part of the word fits for each of those three characters.

i also had this problem for

一人= hitori

i was confused for this one because 人＝ hito and so why is 一 in front of it if the word is hito-ri ????


im so confused does anyone know here i can find a way to find out the exact meaning for each character in a word?

My suggestions are either Jisho.org or Rikaichan. Google them and you'll understand.

First, I'm not sure if you simply decided to use romaji in your post, but you shouldn't be learning kanji -> romaji; make sure you're learning kanji -> hiragana, if you aren't already

Regarding figuring out which character belongs to which pronunciation, like 小学校, the short answer is you start figuring it out over time. Almost all characters are only one or two syllables in length, so you can make an educated guess based on that alone.

Until you start to get that feel, use JDIC's kanji lookup. Plug in the entire word and it'll give you the readings for each character, the most common coming up first.

A quick rule you should be aware of: when a character ends with く, as the case with 学（がく） and another character immediately follows, that く　(almost) always turns into a small つ. So if you were to put each independent character's reading together, you would have しょうがくこう, but the く　turns into っ. If you forget this rule, say しょうがくこう five this as fast as you can. You'll notice that eventually you start slurring がくこう into がっこう =).

一人　（ひとり） is one of those special words you're just going to have to memorize. There is no hardset rule that reasons why it should be pronounced that way.

lol actually i do use kanji -> hiragana and thanks for the website!

konakona50 Wrote:一人= hitori

i was confused for this one because 人＝ hito and so why is 一 in front of it if the word is hito-ri ????

人 isn't always hito. That's just one of the readings.

Think of the native japanese style of counting[sorry, the computer I'm using doesn't have an IME installed]

hitotsu
futatsu
mittsu
etc.

Hence hitori and futari. But then it changes to sannin and so on.

Hi konakona. Welcome to japanese!

人　「ひと」
一　「いち」
二　「に」
三　「さん」
日　「ひ」
今　「いま」

一人　「ひとり」
二人　「ふたり」
三人　「さんにん」

一日　「いちにち」
二日　「ふつか」
三日　「みっか」

今日は　「こんにちは」

and so on

ahhh!! so confusing! i still can't find the correct reading for 学 and 校 in context for the word 小学校 （しょうがっこう） i know that

小= しょう in the word but how about がっこう part? or should i just put that 学校＝がっこう?

soooo...confused




DARN YOU KANJI AND YOUR RIDICULOUSLY CONFUSING WAYS!

konakona50 Wrote:ahhh!! so confusing! i still can't find the correct reading for 学 and 校 in context for the word 小学校 （しょうがっこう） i know that

小= しょう in the word but how about がっこう part? or should i just put that 学校＝がっこう?

soooo...confused




DARN YOU KANJI AND YOUR RIDICULOUSLY CONFUSING WAYS!

The readings are 小　しょう　　学　がっ　　校　　こう
HOWEVER
がっ is not a standard reading for 学, it's just a slur of がく which is the actual reading. Get used to this sort of thing.. don't worry, it'll make sense eventually.

Yes, you should just put 学校＝がっこう。

konakona50 Wrote:ahhh!! so confusing! i still can't find the correct reading for 学 and 校 in context for the word 小学校 （しょうがっこう） i know that

小= しょう in the word but how about がっこう part? or should i just put that 学校＝がっこう?

soooo...confused




DARN YOU KANJI AND YOUR RIDICULOUSLY CONFUSING WAYS!

Read my post again.

As samesong explained above:

学（がく）＋　校（こう）＝　学校（がっこう）

You can think of the reading of 学 as being がっ but that only happens in combination with the following reading. Another example:

出（しゅつ）＋　発（はつ）＝　出発（しゅっぱつ）

Here しゅつ→しゅっ and はつ→ぱつ. Basically the readings inflect slightly when combined.

Hope that helps!

WolfErrant Wrote:As samesong explained above:

学（がく）＋　校（こう）＝　学校（がっこう）

You can think of the reading of 学 as being がっ but that only happens in combination with the following reading. Another example:

出（しゅつ）＋　発（はつ）＝　出発（しゅっぱつ）

Here しゅつ→しゅっ and はつ→ぱつ. Basically the readings inflect slightly when combined.

Hope that helps!

yes it does a lot but where can i find these changes does JDIC's kanji lookup site show them too? or what?

The kanji lookup wont show it very well.
You have to do a word search.
It would be best to stop usig edict at all. Prefer japanese dictionaries:
http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8...=0&dtype=3

Forget that you need to read kanjis in isolation and concentrate on readings of words.

konakona50 Wrote:

WolfErrant Wrote:As samesong explained above:

学（がく）＋　校（こう）＝　学校（がっこう）

You can think of the reading of 学 as being がっ but that only happens in combination with the following reading. Another example:

出（しゅつ）＋　発（はつ）＝　出発（しゅっぱつ）

Here しゅつ→しゅっ and はつ→ぱつ. Basically the readings inflect slightly when combined.

Hope that helps!

yes it does a lot but where can i find these changes does JDIC's kanji lookup site show them too? or what?

They are simply sound changes which are very common in Japanese, it's not something a dictionary will show. Generally: If a reading ends with つ, that つ will become a small っ when followed by another kanji reading.

mentat_kgs Wrote:The kanji lookup wont show it very well.
You have to do a word search.
It would be best to stop usig edict at all. Prefer japanese dictionaries:
http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8...=0&dtype=3

Forget that you need to read kanjis in isolation and concentrate on readings of words.

wait so you think i should learn the words in whole and not by individual characters? is that what your saying?

like instead of putting そ・ふ for 祖父 in my answer part i should just put そふ ?

Exacly. You could just copy and paste it from the dictionary:

http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?p=%E3%81%...&dname=2na
---
そふ【祖父】
one's grandfather

祖父の代からこの町に住んでいる
We have lived in this town since my grandfather's time.
--

Sometimes it is desirable to separate. Sometimes it is not.

mentat_kgs Wrote:Exacly. You could just copy and paste it from the dictionary:

http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?p=%E3%81%...&dname=2na
---
そふ【祖父】
one's grandfather

祖父の代からこの町に住んでいる
We have lived in this town since my grandfather's time.
--

Sometimes it is desirable to separate. Sometimes it is not.

ok kool thanks i'll do that then!

God, do you notice how much duplicated there is in this thread? People would already be able to read my post wich is right above yours.

lol haha srry its a habit

I'm sorry too. I could have been more gentle.

konakona50 Wrote:well i've had a problem as in i dont know which part of japanese words go for each kanji let show you and example

小学校= shougakkou

don't sweat it too much now cos by the time you've learnt a few more words it won't be an issue. e.g, if you learn how to read 中学校, 高校 and 大学 then you'll know the readings for each kaji in 小学校

cangy Wrote:

konakona50 Wrote:well i've had a problem as in i dont know which part of japanese words go for each kanji let show you and example

小学校= shougakkou

don't sweat it too much now cos by the time you've learnt a few more words it won't be an issue. e.g, if you learn how to read 中学校, 高校 and 大学 then you'll know the readings for each kaji in 小学校

Agreed, when you see the same kanji in another compound, the reading just sinks.

At school our teacher tended to teach us the kanji readings, at least at first. Exams only tested whole words, but I think the teacher explained the readings so that we knew how the words were put together and so we could read other words with the same kanji. After a while, though, you start getting to learn the readings just be learning the words, so in the end you rarely need to look them up.

I think that worked well, so maybe I might suggest if you do have time to look up the readings of kanji as you encounter them. Don't work too hard to memorize them, but familiarize yourself as to what typical on-yomi and kun-yomi sound like. It's painful at first, but eventually it becomes natural and you get to wonder what the big deal was.

As for 一人 and 二人, "hito" and "futa" are the kun-yomi of ー and 二. There's nothing unusual about it. What is odd is that why they use kun-yomi for 1 and 2 and switch to on-yomi from 3 onwards.

Contractions and euphonic changes like がく＋こう＝がっこう are quite natural every language I've learned something about. English is full of them, but you don't notice because they're second nature. E.g.
we+will = we'll
is+not = isn't
a + hydrous = anhydrous
in + possible = impossible
If you think about how a Japanese person would say がくこう, then がっこう is not all that different and much easier to say.