on'yomi and kun'yomi

Mike Cash said:

It doesn't work like that.

Do you know what "onyomi" and "kunyomi" mean?

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Toritoribe said:

青年（せいねん）: young people

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Toritoribe said:

Kanji provides the meaning. It's not changed by the reading. 青 is "blue", "young", "immature", etc., whether on'yomi or kun'yomi.
e.g.
群青（ぐんじょう）: deep blue
青（あお）: blue
青天（せいてん）: blue sky
青空（あおぞら）: blue sky
青年（せいねん）: young people
青二才（あおにさい）: greenhorn

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musicisgood said:

I understand that "onyomi" is used mostly for nouns.
Kunyomi when used when kanji appears with adjectives and verbs.

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musicisgood said:

So basically when learning kanji, one must also learn the on and kun to really be able to read in the actually meaning of what is being printed.

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Toritoribe said:

Your understanding is not correct. The on'yomi せい and しょう were originally from the Chinese pronunciations of 青. On the other hand, there had already existed the Japanese origin word あお, which meant "blue", before the kanji 青 was introduced from China, and later, the reading あお was applied to the Chinese character 青 which meant "blue" in Chinese. This is kun'yomi. There are countless kun'yomi nouns (あお is a noun in the first place), and on'yomi verbs (mostly -suru verbs)/adjectives.

Kanji - Readings - On'yomi (Sino-Japanese reading) - Wikipedia
Kanji - Readings - Kun'yomi (native reading) - Wikipedia


As often pointed out, you need to learn the language. To learn grammar is incomparably important than to learn each kanji individually. You should grasp the functions of が or を first, otherwise you even can't understand the meaning of the explanations of kanji such like 木を見るようにむかいあう for 相, right?

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