Tofugu» radicals

How To Guess A Kanji’s Reading That You Don’t Know

Koichi — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 16:00:50 +0000

If you study kanji for long enough you’ll begin to see patterns emerge. At first, they won’t make too much sense and you’ll think it’s pure luck. You’ll make a couple of connections and say “Hey! Nice! This made it easier to remember this kanji. Lucky me.” Then, you’ll go about your life as if everything was as it seems. What if I told you that you could have learned the readings of these kanji more quickly had you realized from teh start that these readings weren’t just a coincidence? Did you know that there are actually radicals that are designed to show you the reading of a particular kanji?

Not all kanji has this reading compound, however. Apparently 67% of the joyo kanji have this phonetic compound radical inside of them, though that doesn’t mean they’re always helpful to you, it just means one of these radicals exists there. Let’s first take a closer look at how you can find these “phonetic compounds.”

The Anatomy Of A Kanji

A standard kanji is made of a couple of parts (and sometimes some garbage). The left side / top is usually the “classifier radical.” This is the radical that you can use to look up the kanji in a kanji dictionary. Sometimes it may even give a hint to the meaning of a kanji, though this is pretty hit or miss (mostly miss). The right side is usually what’s known as the “phonetic compound.” This portion has a specific reading attached to it. If you see this phonetic compound, you can sometimes guess the reading of the kanji. Sometimes by learning one phonetic compound’s reading you can know how to read six or seven other kanji that contain it.

Now there are exceptions… tons of them, unfortunately.

First of all, sometimes the phonetic compound is on the left side, and not the right. This happens when the classifier radical is one of those classifier radicals that normally gets put on the right side. Anyways, you’ll have to watch out for these.

Secondly, not all kanji have a phonetic compound inside of them. Like I mentioned earlier, only 67% of them have it, and they’re not particularly useful. Of the ones that do have a phonetic compound, around 25% have readings that aren’t consistent and are irregular. Even the ones that are fairly consistent with their readings have exceptions. Basically, this technique is at best a way to guess the reading of a kanji and nothing more. Still, something is better than nothing. Just imagine if you’re taking the JLPT and you’re on the kanji section. This sort of thing will help you get a few extra answers correct.

Phonetic Compounds And Their Kanji

To find the phonetic compounds, I sat down with a kanji dictionary going through all the possible readings in the back index. After spending about a half hour going through these one by one, I realized that someone else has probably done all the work for me. Thank goodness, someone had. Luckily for me, a Hiroko Townsend of San Diego State University put in a lot of work into her thesis, listing these out for everyone to enjoy. Thanks Hiroko! You’re a boss.

Here are the radicals that contain fairly consistent phonetic compounds. There are some exceptions (not listed below), but in general they’re pretty straightforward. If you learn the phonetic radical / kanji in the left side column then you know the readings for all the kanji to its right. For some kanji that’s only slightly useful. For others, you learn the readings of a lot of kanji.

几 (き) → 机, 肌, 飢
亡 (ぼう) → 忙, 忘, 盲, 荒, 望, 妄
干 (かん) → 汗, 肝, 奸, 刊, 岸
己 (き) → 起, 記, 紀, 忌
工 (こう) → 紅, 空, 虹, 江, 攻, 功, 肛,
及 (きゅう) → 吸, 級, 扱
士 (し) → 仕, 志, 誌
方 (ほう, ぼう) → 肪, 坊, 紡, 防, 妨, 房, 謗, 傍, 芳, 訪, 放
中 (ちゅう) → 忠, 沖, 仲, 虫, 狆
化 (か) → 花, 貸, 靴
反 (はん) → 版, 板, 坂, 飯, 販, 叛
分 (ふん) → 粉, 紛, 雰
半 (はん) → 伴, 絆, 拌, 判
白 (はく) → 伯, 拍, 泊, 迫, 舶, 狛, 柏, 箔, 珀
皮 (ひ) → 彼, 被, 疲, 被, 披
付 (ふ) → 府, 符, 附, 俯
包 (ほう) → 抱, 泡, 胞, 砲, 飽, 咆
可 (か) → 河, 何, 荷, 苛, 呵, 歌
古 (こ) → 居, 固, 故, 枯, 個, 湖, 箇, 沽, 姑, 苦
生 (せい) → 姓, 性, 星, 牲, 惺
正 (せい) → 征, 政, 症, 整, 性, 牲
司 (し) → 伺, 詞, 嗣, 飼
且 (そ) → 粗, 祖, 狙, 阻, 組
旦 (たん) → 但, 胆, 疸, 担
令 (れい) → 冷, 鈴, 零, 領, 齢, 鈴
立 (りゅう) → 竜, 滝, 粒, 笠, 龍
申 (しん) → 神, 伸, 呻, 押, 紳
召 (しょう) → 招, 沼, 昭, 紹, 詔, 照
安 (あん) → 案, 按, 鞍, 鮟
同 (どう) → 洞, 胴, 桐, 恫, 銅, 洞, 筒
寺 (じ) → 侍, 持, 時, 塒, 峙
旬 (じゅん) → 洵, 殉, 恂
各 (かく) → 格, 喀, 閣, 額
圭 (けい) → 掛, 桂, 畦, 珪, 罫, 鮭, 硅
糸 (けい) → 系, 係, 繋
結 (けつ) → 潔
光 (こう) → 恍
交 (こう) → 校, 絞, 狡, 較, 郊, 効, 咬
共 (きょう, こう) → 供, 恭, 洪, 哄
次 (し) → 姿, 諮, 資
成 (せい) → 盛, 誠, 筬, 城
朱 (しゅ) → 株, 珠, 殊, 蛛
我 (が) → 峨, 蛾, 餓, 俄, 鵞
甫 (ほ) → 浦, 捕, 哺, 匍, 補, 蒲, 輔, 舗
見 (けん) → 硯, 蜆, 現
辰 (しん) → 唇, 振, 賑, 震, 娠
肖 (しょう) → 宵, 消, 硝
弟 (てい) → 第, 剃. 涕
廷 (てい) → 庭, 挺, 艇
良 (りょう) → 郎, 浪, 朗, 狼, 廊
直 (ちょく, しょく) → 植, 埴, 殖, 稙
長 (ちょう) → 張, 帳, 脹
非 (ひ) → 悲, 緋, 誹, 鯡, 琲, 扉
朋 (ほう) → 崩, 棚, 硼
果 (か) → 課, 菓, 踝, 顆
官 (かん) → 棺, 管, 館
奇 (き) → 崎, 埼, 椅
其 (き) → 期, 欺, 棋, 基, 旗
金 (きん) → 欽, 錦, 銀
采 (さい) → 彩, 菜, 採
青 (せい) → 清, 靖, 精, 晴, 請, 情, 鯖, 静
昔 (しゃく) → 借, 惜, 錯
尚 (しょう) → 常, 裳, 掌
昌 (しょう) → 娼, 唱, 菖, 晶
禺 (ぐう) → 遇, 寓, 隅, 偶
扁 (へん) → 編, 偏, 篇, 蝙
則 (そく) → 側, 測, 惻
相 (そう) → 想, 箱, 霜
湘 (しょう) → 廂
莫 (ばく) → 摸, 膜, 漠, 博, 縛, 幕
高 (こう) → 縞, 稿, 藁,
曹 (そう) → 遭, 槽, 糟
曽 (そう) → 贈, 僧, 憎, 増
童 (どう) → 撞, 憧, 瞳
義 (ぎ) → 儀, 議, 犠, 蟻, 艤

Uses a radical from obsolete Japanese
孝* (こう) → 孝, 老, 考
径** (けい) → 径, 経, 軽, 怪, 茎
乍 (さく) → 作, 昨, 窄, 酢, 搾
低** (てい) → 低, 底, 抵, 邸, 抵
券* (けん) → 券, 巻, 圏, 拳
根** (こん) → 根, 痕, 恨, 懇, 墾
退 (たい) → 腿
峡** (きょう) → 峡, 狭, 挟
浅** (せん) → 浅, 銭, 践
珍** (しん) → 診, 疹, 参
峰** (ほう) → 峰, 逢, 縫, 蜂, 蓬,
俊** (しゅん) → 俊, 峻, 悛, 逡, 竣, 浚
通** (つう) → 通, 桶, 痛
険** (けん) → 険, 験, 検
過 (か) → 渦, 堝, 鍋, 蝸, 窩, 禍
福** (ふく) → 福, 副, 複, 幅, 富, 蝠
滴** (てき) → 滴, 適, 敵
壁* (へき) → 壁, 癖
燥* (そう) → 燥, 操, 藻
* remove the bottom radical component
** remove the left side radical component

That right there is approximately 100 kanji/radicals that, if you learn the reading of them, you can guess the reading of around 500 total kanji. That’s around 1/4 of the joyo kanji list. Not a bad shortcut! I think one issue is that a lot of people don’t know that this little trick exists. Just by knowing that you can do this, you’ll begin to notice these patterns showing up in your own kanji learning. This will help to accelerate your kanji learning by a considerable amount in the long run.

So, if you’re studying kanji, go through this list and start making the connections. What phonetic compounds do you already know? Now, see what other kanji there are to the right that you know. See how it all sort of makes sense? Kanji isn’t as insane as people tend to think, though it’s still super complicated no matter how you look at it. You’ll spend a lot of time learning the kanji (even if you’re using, say, WaniKani), but things like this will win you some extra time.

Good luck studying that kanji thing!

–

Sources:
Phonetic Components In Japanese Characters
Decoding Kanji

5 Step JLPT Study Method Using Japanese Newspapers for Kids

nick — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 22:35:23 +0000

Passing the JLPT at any level requires being able to read some Japanese and of course the best way to learn to read is well….reading stuff. The problem with reading is that it’s really hard. For most of us below the JLPT Level 1, pulling out a newspaper, book, or magazine in Japanese and just reading and understanding it is next to impossible to do in a reasonable amount of time. To be fair, those newspapers, books, and magazines are written for adults and the JLPT only tests up to a middle school level of language comprehension. If our Japanese reading level is the same as kids, why not read like one? Most people solve this problem using manga, but the JLPT makes you to read paragraphs not text bubbles with pictures. Thanks to my JLPT prep class teacher, I found a great way to study for the JLPT: Japanese Newspapers for Kids!

Using a Japanese newspaper for kids, like Mainichi Shogakusei Shinbun above, I developed a 5 step study method designed to increase vocabulary and kanji identification, reading comprehension, and confidence for taking the JLPT! Reading at the appropriate level makes it possible to practice reading similar paragraphs that will appear in the test and gives you the chance to identify vocabulary and kanji that are likely to appear in the JLPT.

Read the article without any helpful hiragana
Identify and list unknown words
Identify and list unknown kanji
Study the new lists
Re-read the article

Paired with Evernote and Jisho.org, this 5 step method should give you a good head start in your studying!

Step 1: Read the article without any helpful hiragana

I know it’s frustrating, sad, and hard, but reading the article first without any help will help you out in a lot of ways in the long run so stick with it and don’t cry! The first thing that will result from reading the article without any hiragana is helping you to honestly assess your reading ability. It will show you the words you know and the ones you don’t in black and white. The other important thing this step accomplishes is simulating the actual test. There will be no helpful hiragana in the real test, so why practice with it? If you are really serious about taking the test, you might also want to time yourself to see how long it takes to read a short article.

Using Evernote, I selected and added this text from an article on Mainichi Shogakusei Shinbun resulting in the above picture. The rockin thing about Evernote in this example is that it automatically makes a title and takes note of the original page you visited so you wont forget later! I then removed the pesky hiragana and gave reading the article my best shot.

Step 2: Identify and list unknown words

Crap…as you can see I’ve got a LONG way to go! In this step, highlight the words you don’t know in red and hope you don’t get an atomic red ink bomb like I did! It is important to be HONEST with yourself here. If you can’t read it without any help from hiragana, or if you look it up in the dictionary and say “Oh, right, duh! I know this one!” mark it red Donny, because you are OUT OF YOUR ELEMENT! lol. More seriously, just be conservative, if you don’t guess right the first time, it won’t hurt you to practice those borderline words a few times. In the end, it is really good practice to identify difficult words as they are used in a paragraph. When you are finished, your list should look something like this:

Step 3: Identify and list unknown kanji

In the vocabulary list, find and highlight kanji in red that you can’t recognize right away as demonstrated in the example above. Once identified, use a Japanese dictionary to make a list of kanji for future reference. I found the website jisho.org VERY useful in completing this step. Copy and paste the unknown kanji from the vocab list to the kanji list and as long as you don’t cut and paste anything else, you can simply paste it again into the kanji search page of jisho.org. Once you look up the kanji, the website spits out more information than anyone can dream about that specific kanji. I recommend at least taking note of all the different readings for the kanji and the definition in English. One extra step I took was to include other words that that kanji appears in to practice recognition in general. Jisho.org has a great feature to do this by pressing on the link in the “Kanji” page called “Words Containing” and usually zillions of words will come up that use this kanji, which can then be paired down to common words if desired. Here is an example of a finished kanji list made from an article:

Step 4: Study the new lists

Now we get to the hard part: you have to remember all the stuff you just wrote down! Making lots of lists is a waste of time if you don’t actually go back through them to learn the material. Try to use the words in a sentence, look up more kanji combination, use them in a diary or homework assignment, or use Textfugu to learn about remembering radicals to help you retain the lists you just wrote. Whatever you decide to do, be proactive and do something…anything! It will pay off for the text and for the next step in this method.

Step 5: Re-read the article

Now that you are the master of all the vocabulary and kanji that stumped you in the article you read, go back and rock it! Of course leave out the hiragana, and see how much you retained. If there are still words and kanji that you miss, go back to the lists you made and study them for a while and re-read the article again. Hopefully by the end of this process you will understand the meaning of the article, which will be a critical part in the new test. Practicing reading full paragraphs will make life a lot easier for you when you actually sit down for the JLPT. Good luck passing the JLPT!

LINKS

Newspapers for Kids:

Dictionaries:

Other Resources:

This post was written by Nick W., who has traveled throughout many regions of Japan in search of unique cultural gems. He is currently earning his MBA and has researched topics like folk music in WWII Japan and Ainu cultural revival through music. His favorite Japanese musician is the late Nujabes. Currently, he is studying for the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) Level 2.