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I am soo confused right now
| Other languages do this as well. English even.
G = Guh
I = Aye
GI = Jih
| To go further - in English, "ghoti" can be read as "fish"
"gh" as in "enough"
"o" as in "ignition"
"ti" also as in "ignition"
| >You Can't Learn Japanese
| I don't know Japanese myself, but isn't this due to the different readings of the kanji? So you just have to learn the different readings/when to apply them?
And compared to >>141671 where pronunciation isn't specified, that sounds a lot better since readings would be recorded in reference material.
Moral of the story: People raised multilingual are lucky bastards and all languages have pain in the ass rules.
| Most kanji have two pronunciations, one japanese and one chinese since kanji originally is chinese. Water for example is "mizu' but in chinese its "sui", I've found that compound kanji usually use the chinese pronounciation, watercolor = suisai for example. Hang in there OP, it's the trickiest in the beginning, it gets easier!
| kanji can have multiple readings, you have time memorise when to use which one.
| general rule is that one kanji alone uses 'kun' reading while combination of more uses 'on' reading
| >>141744 I would even call 'on' reading as Chinese one because it was borrowed from old Chinese and adapted to Japanese sounds.
| OP. It is okay, japanese people struggle with kanji readings everyday as well.
| Just learn the hira and kata alphabet and spend the rest of your life reading magazines directed to children/teenagers :^)
| Kanji is chinese characters really. Ni-hon-jin is read ri-ben-ren in chinese ansd means the same thing. In chinese every character is exactly one syllable and it is always read the same, it is a well determined symbol that corresponds always to the same sound. This is not true for kanji, which retains the meaning of the character, but pronounciation differs where that symbol is in a sentence. One kanji can be read even as two or more syllables. OP is right to be confused.
| >>142384
Are you shallow or something? A differrnt dialect in this respect is like a different language entirely. And within that language, the characters are again consistent into being pronounced the same. 'ngo-dei' and 'wo-shi' are the same characters in both languages, but ie. the first one is in all situations pronounced 'ngo' in one and 'wo' in the other.
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| So I am learning Japanese by myself and i know some of the Kanji (only N5 level) and i am so confused about reading words (i even searched it on the internet but i couldn't find anything)
Here's why
日=ni 本=hon 人=hito
日本人=nihonjin ??
And here's another example
今=ima 日=ni(or hi)
今日= kyou !???!!?!?!??!
WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS JAPAN WHYY