David Hallgren
Oct 20, 2004, 17:44
I write this because there are many threads right now with the same theme: How do I use kanji and kana together? This topic seems to confuse people that try to learn without a textbook. But instead of just telling you to buy a textbook, which you should by the way :blush:, I will write a really short explanation here.
Let's take the simple sentance, My name is David. As most of you know it will look like this in romaji:
Watashi no namae wa Daabiddo desu. (Swedish pronunciation of David)
Lets write this in hiragana.
わたしのなまえはだあびっどです。
Here Japanese does something clever, it marks out だあびっど as being foreign by using another set of kana for it, the katakana. Katakana has a few other functions than marking out foreign words but let's settle with that for now. That gives us a sentence looking like:
わたしのなまえはダービッドです。
Better, but still a little hard to read. Justlikeasentencewouldbeinenglishwithoutspaces. But once again something clever is done. This might confuse some, but the use of kanji actually makes the sentence a lot easier to read! Sure kanji will give you headache when learning them, but in the end Japanese would be more difficult without them. Using kanji the sentence looks like:
私の名前はダービッドです。
So the word わたし is replace by 私 which means I and can be read わたし.
The word なまえ is replaced by 名前 which is a combination of two kanji. If you look up the meanings for each of them you would find that 名 often means name 前 and means in front of. This is a good example because it shows that just because a dictionary lists "name" a meaning for 名 that doesn't mean that you can use 名 alone to represent that. This often confuse new learners, but now you've heard it so don't be surprised the next time it happens :-) . A few examples of this:
飛行機 - Fly-going-machine - Airplane (logical)
寿司 - longevity-director - Sushi (not that logical)
One more thing that I haven't mentioned yet, a kanji can not always "contain a whole word". For verbs the ending must be outside of the kanji so that it can change and for some words the kanji simply doesn't "cover the whole word". A sample of this.
寿司を食べます。 (I) eat sushi.
See how in 食べます only the た of たべる is contained in 食.
There is much more to be said about the how to know when to use a certain reading etc., this is just a short introduction. Please ask questions!
Let's take the simple sentance, My name is David. As most of you know it will look like this in romaji:
Watashi no namae wa Daabiddo desu. (Swedish pronunciation of David)
Lets write this in hiragana.
わたしのなまえはだあびっどです。
Here Japanese does something clever, it marks out だあびっど as being foreign by using another set of kana for it, the katakana. Katakana has a few other functions than marking out foreign words but let's settle with that for now. That gives us a sentence looking like:
わたしのなまえはダービッドです。
Better, but still a little hard to read. Justlikeasentencewouldbeinenglishwithoutspaces. But once again something clever is done. This might confuse some, but the use of kanji actually makes the sentence a lot easier to read! Sure kanji will give you headache when learning them, but in the end Japanese would be more difficult without them. Using kanji the sentence looks like:
私の名前はダービッドです。
So the word わたし is replace by 私 which means I and can be read わたし.
The word なまえ is replaced by 名前 which is a combination of two kanji. If you look up the meanings for each of them you would find that 名 often means name 前 and means in front of. This is a good example because it shows that just because a dictionary lists "name" a meaning for 名 that doesn't mean that you can use 名 alone to represent that. This often confuse new learners, but now you've heard it so don't be surprised the next time it happens :-) . A few examples of this:
飛行機 - Fly-going-machine - Airplane (logical)
寿司 - longevity-director - Sushi (not that logical)
One more thing that I haven't mentioned yet, a kanji can not always "contain a whole word". For verbs the ending must be outside of the kanji so that it can change and for some words the kanji simply doesn't "cover the whole word". A sample of this.
寿司を食べます。 (I) eat sushi.
See how in 食べます only the た of たべる is contained in 食.
There is much more to be said about the how to know when to use a certain reading etc., this is just a short introduction. Please ask questions!