Probably very stupid question

[Someone4373]

Hello again all ,


Often in online Japanese dictionaries, there's always a Kanji version of words. That confuses me, since I do not know which one to use. Let's take these examples: Kawaii. かわいい. The online dictionary which I use, also presents 可愛い as the kanji. It is used at all? How can I know which one to use?

Most Japanese people I see on the internet write "kawaii" in hiragana. But for another example, "aniki", I think (I think) most use the kanji version 兄貴, instead of あにき. Should preference be given to which version?

I'm really confused and I'm new at Japanese, so forgive me if these are really stupid or nonsensical questions. :sorry:

 

[JimmySeal]

Sometimes it's one. Sometimes it's the other. Sometimes it's either one and sometimes it's both at the same time.

The only sensible way to figure it out is to read a lot of Japanese.

 

[grapefruit]

It is more like style. I would say that the genre must be the primary factor. The general thumb is the more kanji present in the text, the more formal the text looks. When it comes to kawaii, I assume most of the hiragana cases found on the net must be emotional responses of the writers, thus more casual. Also, "kawaii" in hiragana looks more "kawaii".

 

[Amigo]

When it comes to learn and you really want to learn never a question is stupid.

You can't imagine how many "stupid questions" I used to ask when I started to learn Japanese as well as English.