Onyomi vs kunyomi: why kanji have more than one reading

Most kanji can be read in two ways. The onyomi (音読み), or “sound reading”, is the Chinese reading: the pronunciation a character had in Chinese when Japan borrowed it, adapted to Japanese sounds. The kunyomi (訓読み) is the Japanese reading: a native Japanese word that the kanji was used to write. 山, mountain, is やま (yama) on its own, its kunyomi, and さん (san) in 富士山 (Fujisan), Mount Fuji, its onyomi. As a rule of thumb, a kanji inside a longer word usually takes its onyomi, and a kanji standing alone or followed by hiragana usually takes its kunyomi.

Onyomi and kunyomi side by side

Four everyday kanji, one reading of each kind. As in dictionaries, onyomi are in katakana and kunyomi in hiragana.

• 山に登りたい。

  Yama ni noboritai.

  I'd like to climb a mountain.

• ここから富士山が見えます。

  Koko kara Fujisan ga miemasu.

  You can see Mount Fuji from here.

• 一緒に食べましょう。

  Issho ni tabemashou.

  Let's eat together.

• 駅の近くで食事をしました。

  Eki no chikaku de shokuji o shimashita.

  We had a meal near the station.

What is onyomi, and what is kunyomi?

When Chinese characters came to Japan, their pronunciations came too, reshaped to fit Japanese sounds: those are the onyomi. The likeness often survives: 山 is shān in Mandarin today, and its onyomi is さん (san).

Japan already had its own words for mountain, water and fire. When people wrote those words with Chinese characters, each character took on the Japanese word as a second reading, its kunyomi: やま for 山, みず for 水, ひ for 火. The 訓 in 訓読み means an explanation: a kunyomi is the Japanese word that explains the character.

When to use onyomi or kunyomi

Three tendencies help:

• Inside a compound, a kanji usually takes its onyomi: 水曜日 (suiyoubi), 食事 (shokuji), 先生 (sensei), teacher.
• Followed by hiragana, a kanji usually takes its kunyomi: 食べる (taberu), 行く (iku), to go, 高い (takai), tall or expensive.
• On its own, a kanji often takes its kunyomi: 山 (yama), 水 (mizu).

They are tendencies, not laws, and the exceptions are everyday words. Some compounds are all kunyomi: 手紙 (tegami), a letter, and 名前 (namae), a name. Some kanji stand alone with their onyomi: 本 (hon), a book, 茶 (cha), tea, and 駅 (eki), a station. And 感じる (kanjiru), to feel, has hiragana after it but uses the onyomi かん (kan). The rule underneath is simpler: each word has its own reading, and you learn it with the word.

Okurigana: the hiragana after a kanji

Verbs and adjectives change their endings, so Japanese writes the stem in kanji and the part that changes in hiragana. These trailing kana are called okurigana (送り仮名). 食べる (taberu), to eat, becomes 食べた (tabeta), ate, or 食べます (tabemasu), the polite form, while 食 stays the same.

Okurigana also tell you which reading to use. 行く is いく (iku), to go, but 行う is おこなう (okonau), to carry out. Dictionaries often mark the split with a dot, た.べる; our kanji lists use brackets, た(べる).

Why some kanji have several onyomi

Japan borrowed Chinese characters and their sounds over several centuries, from different regions of China, so one kanji can carry more than one onyomi. Scholars group them in layers:

• Go-on (呉音), the oldest layer, from the 5th and 6th centuries, based on Chinese spoken in the Wu region.
• Kan-on (漢音), from the 7th to the 9th centuries, based on the speech of Chang’an, the capital of Tang China.
• Tou-on (唐音), mostly from the 12th century onwards, from the Song dynasty and later. Despite the name, 唐 here simply means China.

行, to go, has a reading from each layer, plus its kunyomi:

You don’t need to know the layers. Learn 旅行 and 銀行, and こう comes with them.

Why some kanji have many kunyomi

One Chinese character could match several Japanese words, and it took on all of them. The classic example is 生, life: the open kanji dictionary KANJIDIC2 lists two onyomi and more than a dozen kunyomi for it. Here are six, in common words:

Why dictionaries write onyomi in katakana

The official jōyō kanji table, the Japanese government’s list of 2,136 kanji for general use, writes onyomi in katakana and kunyomi in hiragana, and kanji dictionaries do the same: 山 is listed as サン and やま. It’s a label for reference books; in everyday writing you just see the kanji.

Mixed readings: juubako-yomi and yutou-yomi

Some compounds mix the two. Onyomi then kunyomi is called juubako-yomi (重箱読み), after 重箱 (juubako), a tiered food box: じゅう (juu) is the onyomi of 重, and ばこ (bako) is はこ (hako), the kunyomi of 箱. The reverse is yutou-yomi (湯桶読み), after 湯桶 (yutou), a lacquered vessel for hot water: ゆ (yu), the kunyomi of 湯, then とう (tou), the onyomi of 桶. Each name is an example of itself. (湯, hot water, has a lesson of its own.)

Even the words 音読み and 訓読み are juubako-yomi: おん (on) and くん (kun) are onyomi, and よみ (yomi) is a kunyomi.

Jukujikun: words read as a whole

Some words have a reading that belongs to the whole word, not to each kanji, called jukujikun (熟字訓). 今日 is 今, now, plus 日, day, and it’s read きょう (kyou), today, but you can’t split きょう between the two kanji.

The Japanese word came first, and the kanji were chosen for its meaning: くだもの was once ku-da-mono, “tree’s thing”, and it’s written 果, fruit, plus 物, thing.

Several of these words also have a regular reading. 今日 can be こんにち (konnichi), “these days”, which is where こんにちは (konnichiwa) comes from. 明日 is あした (ashita) in conversation, あす (asu) when you’re being polite, and みょうにち (myounichi) in formal speech. 紅葉, autumn leaves, has both kinds too: momiji and kouyou.

Readings in names

Japan’s three most common family names show the mix: 佐藤 (Satou) is read with onyomi, while 鈴木 (Suzuki), “bell tree”, and 高橋 (Takahashi), “high bridge”, use kunyomi. Place names vary too: 東京 (Tokyo) is onyomi, とう + きょう, and 大阪 (Osaka) is kunyomi, おお + さか (what the names mean). Many given names use readings found only in names, called nanori (名乗り), and a name in kanji can often be read more than one way. That’s why Japanese forms and business cards often give the reading in kana.

How to learn kanji readings

Don’t try to memorise every reading from a list. Learn each kanji through one common word, and add readings as new words bring them:

1. Start with the reading in the most useful word: 食 through 食べる (taberu).
2. When a new word uses another reading, learn it with that word: 食事 (shokuji).
3. Let patterns come to you: once you know 曜日 (youbi), every day of the week ends with it.

In Chirami, every kanji comes with a common word and its Japanese and Chinese readings; tap a reading to see when it’s used. The guide to learning kanji goes through the whole method.

Common questions

What’s the difference between onyomi and kunyomi?

Onyomi is the reading a kanji brought with it from Chinese; kunyomi is the native Japanese word it was used to write. 山 is さん (san) as onyomi and やま (yama) as kunyomi. Onyomi turn up mostly in compounds, kunyomi in words that stand alone or end in hiragana.

Does every kanji have both?

No. Some have only onyomi, like 茶 (cha), tea, and 駅 (eki), a station. Kanji created in Japan, called kokuji (国字), usually have only kunyomi: 畑 (hatake), a field or vegetable garden, and 峠 (touge), a mountain pass.

Should I learn onyomi or kunyomi first?

Neither: learn words, and each word brings its reading. Your first word for a kanji often uses its kunyomi, like 山 (yama), but numbers such as 一 (ichi) and 三 (san) are onyomi from day one, and 四, four, is both: shi or yon.

How do I know which reading a word uses?

From the word itself: look it up once and learn the reading with it. Compounds lean towards onyomi, but jukujikun like 今日 (kyou) have to be learned as words. Books for children and learners often print the reading in small kana beside the kanji, called furigana.

The kanji in this guide

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Sources

• Agency for Cultural Affairs: Jōyō kanji table, 2010 (Japanese, PDF)
• Agency for Cultural Affairs: Jōyō kanji reading index (Japanese)
• Wikipedia: Kanji
• Wikipedia: Sino-Japanese vocabulary
• Wikipedia: Kan-on
• Wikipedia (Japanese): 唐音
• Wikipedia: Okurigana
• Wikipedia: Japanese name
• Wiktionary: 訓読み
• Wiktionary: 山
• Wiktionary: 果物 (jukujikun, etymology)
• Wiktionary: 昨日
• Wiktionary: 大人
• Wiktionary: 明日
• Jisho (JMdict): 重箱
• Jisho (JMdict): 湯桶

Written by the Chirami team with the help of AI, then checked against JMdict, KANJIDIC2 and the sources above. How we write. Spotted a mistake? Email support@brightsmilesolutions.org.