Do kun yomi/on yomi have no purpose?

[GoldCoinLover]

I have a japanese friend named Mac, who is very helpful with me learning japanese, but he is learning english himself. Up to talking to him, I thought the on yomi and kun yomi were 2 different meanings of the kanji written in hiragana. But mac says they have no purpose, and no one uses them. How am I supposed to write to kanji in kana if there's no other way?

I use JWPce.

 

[Gaijinian]

The DO have a purpose.
Use on yomi in a combo of kanji (like 漢字・かん じ), or kun yomi for individual kanji, or if the combo has hiragana (like 若（わか）い, or 飛（と）び出（だ）す）.
There are some exceptions, though.
But, the reading does not affect the meaning.

 

[GoldCoinLover]

The DO have a purpose.
Use on yomi in a combo of kanji (like 漢字・かん じ), or kun yomi for individual kanji, or if the combo has hiragana (like 若（わか）い, or 飛（と）び出（だ）す）.
There are some exceptions, though.
But, the reading does not affect the meaning.

Thank you, maybe he was confused or something. Yes I heard earlier somewhere that you use kun yomi for invidual kanji (if its by itself), and on yomi for multiple kanji. So lets say I look up a kanji on JWPce, is it safe to say that if the kanji is alone (its kun yomi) the reading then says how to say it , and how to write it, in hiragana?

Thanks

 

[Glenn]

The DO have a purpose.
Use on yomi in a combo of kanji (like 漢字・かん じ), or kun yomi for individual kanji, or if the combo has hiragana (like 若（わか）い, or 飛（と）び出（だ）す）.
There are some exceptions, though.
But, the reading does not affect the meaning.

Sometimes it does. Take for example the difference between 軒（のき）軒（けん）. Have a look here.

 

[Buntaro]

To know why there are Kun and On readings, you need to study the history of the Japnese writing system. Centuries ago, there was no writing system in Japan at all. Then the Chinese system was imported. So, at that time, if you wanted to write someting, you had to write it in Chinese. This went on for a long time.

Eventually, Japanese starting using Chinese characters to write Japanese words. (They still do.) This meant taking the Chinese character for "tree", for example, not using the Chinese pronunciation any more, and using the Japanese pronunciation (hence creating the Kun/On system).

However, in words that are combinations of kanji, the Chinese pronunciations were still used, even when writing in Japanese. It was important to keep track of which pronunciation of each character was being used. This persists onto this very day.

"...they have no purpose, and no one uses them..."? No way. Without the Kun and On pronunciations, the Japanese writing system would become useless.

 

[Glenn]

For more on kanji use, see also this post of mine.

 

[Elizabeth]

I think there are tons of examples where the reading distinguishes the meaning, apart from the obvious distinction between noun and verb, there is the difference of
fat (ふとい） and big or wide （たい）, what (なに） and which/when/where （ど（なた）、い(つか、どこ)、rank, grade (い） and about, extent （ぐらい） etc.

These are just the few that first came to mind, almost every set of meanings has a large shared area of overlap as well between the on and yomi and possibly also within both which you'll learn as you go along. There isn't enough space or time here to list them all...

 

[Gaijinian]

But, the reading does not affect the meaning.

I was giving a general idea of how kanji "work," and for the most part, the kanji has a similar meaning despite the reading. But yeah...

 

[Glenn]

ごめんなさい、Ｇａｉｊｉｎｉａｎさん。もっと明かにしたかっただけです。感情を害したらごめんなさい。

 

[Mike Cash]

I've been meaning to post this somewhere, and this looks like as good a place as any....

Time to mess with the OP's mind:

東 higashi
東海 toukai
東海運 azuma kaiun
東海海運 toukai kaiun

 

[Glenn]

Not just the OP's mind.

 

[Elizabeth]

ごめんなさい、Ｇａｉｊｉｎｉａｎさん。もっと明かにしたかっただけです。感情を害したらごめんなさい。

私にも、まったく気を悪くしたりしていないでほしい。

 

[Gaijinian]

ごめんなさい、Ｇａｉｊｉｎｉａｎさん。もっと明かに したかっただけです。感情を害したらごめんなさい。
私にも、まったく気を悪くしたりしていないでほしい。

全然心配しなくてもいいですよ！ＧｏｌｄＣｏｉｎＬｏｖｅｒが解るようになったらいいでしょう。一般的に読みによって意味が変化されなくても、変わる意味が多くあるらしくてさ、明徴は必要あるみたいですね。

でも別に人が音・訓 読みの使い方が知らなければ、やっぱり初学者で混乱させるような返事にすれば困るかもしれまんな、と思っていたんです。
勉強すれば勉強するほど、こんな事が学べて、理解できてくるでしょう。でも、そのトキまで、私がしたみたいに微妙の答えでも助けられるのかな～。

 

[studyonline]

The topic should be one of the most difficult things on Kanji's. 私が思うには、訓読みと音読みについての、決まったパターンというのはまずないとないことです。

私がまだ日本の学校にいたころ、先生はとりあえず生徒たちにただ覚えるようにといいました。 Just like there is always an exception in the grammar rules, you simply need to memorize such irregular stuff.

However, usually the meaning of the Kanji remains the same. Thus you can often know the meaning of the word, either it has to be Kun or On yomi. They are mostly for the sake of the pronunciation. You basically have to know both ways to pronounce and read. Do not worry though because there are many Kanji's that Japanese can't pronounce. Just learn and focus on basic Kanji's from your textbooks.