Kanji

Kanji are characters that came from China about 1,500 years ago. Each one stands for a meaning, not just a sound: 山 is “mountain”, 人 is “person”, 日 is “sun” or “day”. Some began as pictures, and others are built from smaller parts.

Japanese schools teach a list of 2,136 kanji for everyday use, the 常用漢字 (jōyō kanji), and newspapers mostly stick to it. You don't need them to follow this course: every word comes with romaji, and the word lists give the kana reading of each kanji.

Kanji make Japanese easier to read, not harder. There are no spaces between words, but kanji mark where the main words start, and hiragana shows the grammar in between: in 私は日本語を勉強します (Watashi wa Nihongo o benkyō shimasu), the kanji carry the meaning and the kana carry the grammar.

Most kanji have two kinds of reading. The kun reading (訓読み, kun'yomi) is a Japanese word given to the kanji; it is usually used when the kanji stands on its own or is followed by kana. The on reading (音読み, on'yomi) comes from the old Chinese pronunciation; it is usually used when two or more kanji form one word.

So 山 alone is やま (yama), but in 富士山 (Fujisan, Mount Fuji) it is さん (san). Dictionaries write kun readings in hiragana and on readings in katakana. You don't need to learn readings on their own: learn words, and the readings will follow.

Some common words have special readings that belong to the whole word: 今日 (kyō, today), 一人 (hitori, one person), 大人 (otona, adult).

Verbs and adjectives change their endings, so the kanji holds the part that stays the same and hiragana spells the rest. These trailing kana are called 送り仮名 (okurigana). In 食べます (tabemasu, I eat), 食 is read ta, and the kana べます spell the rest: 食べない (tabenai), 食べた (tabeta).

Okurigana also help you tell words apart that share a kanji: 行 is read i in 行きます (ikimasu, I go), with okurigana after it, but kō in 銀行 (ginkō, bank), where it is part of a two-kanji word.

In books for children and learners, small kana are sometimes printed above or beside a kanji to show its reading. These reading aids are called 振り仮名 (furigana).

Many kanji are made of two or more parts. One of them, the radical, often gives a hint about the meaning: kanji with the water radical 氵 on the left usually have something to do with water, and kanji with 亻 have to do with people. Dictionaries sort kanji by their radical.

Kanji are written stroke by stroke in a fixed order, generally from top to bottom and from left to right. Following the order makes handwriting neater and easier to read, and it helps when you look a kanji up by drawing it on a phone.

These kanji come up again and again in the first chapters. For each one you see its main readings in hiragana and a common word that uses it. For verbs and adjectives, the reading is shown with its okurigana, such as いく (iku) for 行, because the kanji covers only the first part of the word.