On'yomi vs Kun'yomi: How to Tell Which Kanji Reading to Use

山 on its own is やま. Put it after 富士 and it becomes さん, as in 富士山 (ふじさん), Mount Fuji. In 火山 (かざん), volcano, it's that same reading with the first sound voiced. One character, one meaning, and two ways to say it.

Most kanji work like this. The readings fall into two families, on'yomi (音読み, おんよみ) and kun'yomi (訓読み, くんよみ), and most of the time you can guess which family a word wants from how it's written. The guessing rules are right often enough to be useful, and the second half of this post is about where they aren't.

Readings below are given in kana. Following the dictionary convention, on'yomi are in katakana and kun'yomi in hiragana when a reading is shown on its own. If you can't read kana yet, start with our hiragana guide and come back.

Where the two readings came from

Japanese had no writing of its own when Chinese characters arrived, in roughly the 5th century. The spoken language was already there, with its own words for mountain, water and person. So each imported character ended up with two kinds of pronunciation attached.

The on'yomi is the Japanese approximation of how the character sounded in Chinese when it was borrowed. 山 was something like "san", so it became サン. The kun'yomi is the native Japanese word with the same meaning, pinned onto the character: the Japanese word for mountain was やま, so 山 can also be read やま. 音 means sound, and 訓 means something like a gloss or explanation, which is a fair description of each.

Borrowing went on for centuries, from different parts of China, and pronunciation there kept changing. That's why one kanji can have two or three on'yomi. 行 is ギョウ in 行列 (ぎょうれつ, a queue), コウ in 旅行 (りょこう, travel) and アン in the old word 行灯 (あんどん, a paper lantern), each from a different wave of borrowing. You don't need to know which wave a reading came from. It's enough to know the extra readings have a history and weren't added to annoy you.

Twelve common kanji with both readings

In the kun'yomi column, the part in brackets is okurigana, the hiragana written after the kanji to finish the word.

Look down the two example columns and a pattern is already visible. The on'yomi examples are blocks of two or more kanji. The kun'yomi examples are a kanji by itself or a kanji with hiragana trailing after it.

Three rules of thumb

Kanji compounds usually take on'yomi

When two or more kanji sit side by side with no kana between them, try the on'yomi of each: 学校 (がっこう, school), 電話 (でんわ, telephone), 先生 (せんせい, teacher), 図書館 (としょかん, library). Many of these words were borrowed from Chinese whole. Others were built in Japan out of Chinese parts, much as English builds new words from Greek and Latin.

A kanji with okurigana usually takes kun'yomi

Verbs and adjectives written as a kanji plus hiragana are native Japanese words, so the kanji gets its kun'yomi: 食べる (たべる, to eat), 高い (たかい, tall or expensive), 話す (はなす, to speak), 新しい (あたらしい, new).

The main exception is する. Attach it to a compound and the compound keeps its on'yomi, as in 勉強する (べんきょうする, to study). A few single-kanji verbs work the same way. 愛する (あいする, to love) and 感じる (かんじる, to feel) are the on'yomi アイ and カン with a verb ending stuck on.

A kanji standing alone is usually kun'yomi

山 (やま), 水 (みず), 手 (て, hand), 犬 (いぬ, dog), 右 (みぎ, right). A single kanji used as a word by itself is most often the native word.

This is the weakest of the three rules. Plenty of single kanji are read with on'yomi because the Chinese-derived word is the everyday one: 本 (ほん, book), 肉 (にく, meat), 駅 (えき, station), 茶 (ちゃ, tea), 絵 (え, picture). Some of them have no kun'yomi in ordinary use at all. It runs the other way too. A small number of kanji were invented in Japan, and several of those have only a kun'yomi, such as 畑 (はたけ, a cultivated field) and 峠 (とうげ, a mountain pass).

Where the rules break

Compounds read entirely in kun'yomi

手紙 (てがみ, letter), 名前 (なまえ, name), 花火 (はなび, fireworks), 建物 (たてもの, building), 朝日 (あさひ, morning sun). These are native Japanese compounds that happen to be written with two kanji. One clue sometimes helps: if there's okurigana in the middle, as in 買い物 (かいもの, shopping) or 乗り場 (のりば, a boarding area), it's kun'yomi all the way through. Without that clue you can't tell from the page.

Notice that かみ became がみ in 手紙 and ひ became び in 花火. That voicing at the join is called rendaku. It's a sound change on the same reading, and it's also what turned サン into ザン in 火山.

Mixed readings: juubako-yomi and yutou-yomi

Some compounds take one reading of each kind. On'yomi followed by kun'yomi is called juubako-yomi (重箱読み), after 重箱 (じゅうばこ, a set of stacked food boxes), a word that is itself read this way: ジュウ plus はこ. The reverse order, kun'yomi then on'yomi, is yutou-yomi (湯桶読み), named after 湯桶 (ゆとう, a pitcher for hot water): ゆ plus トウ.

• On then kun: 台所 (だいどころ, kitchen), 本屋 (ほんや, bookshop), 毎朝 (まいあさ, every morning), 番組 (ばんぐみ, TV programme), 仕事 (しごと, work)
• Kun then on: 場所 (ばしょ, place), 荷物 (にもつ, luggage), 夕飯 (ゆうはん, dinner), 見本 (みほん, sample), 手本 (てほん, a model to copy)

Several of these are among the first few hundred words you'll learn, so the compound rule has holes in it even at beginner level.

Jukujikun: readings that belong to the whole word

今日 is きょう, today. You can't split that reading between the two characters, because 今 is never きょ and 日 is never う. The reading belongs to the pair as a unit. This is called jukujikun (熟字訓): an existing Japanese word, きょう, was given a spelling chosen for its meaning, 今 (now) plus 日 (day).

Some of these spellings have a regular reading as well. 今日 can be read こんにち, which means "these days" and is the word inside こんにちは. 明日 is あした in conversation, あす on the news, and みょうにち in very formal speech.

Words for time, family and counting are full of jukujikun. Our post on Japanese numbers in kanji has more of the counting ones, like 二十歳 (はたち, twenty years old).

One spelling, two words

A handful of compounds have an on'yomi reading and a kun'yomi reading with different meanings. Only context tells you which is meant.

• 市場: しじょう is a market in the economic sense, and いちば is a physical marketplace with stalls.
• 生物: せいぶつ is a living thing, and なまもの is raw or perishable food.
• 風車: ふうしゃ is a windmill, and かざぐるま is a toy pinwheel.
• 色紙: しきし is the square card that autographs are written on, and いろがみ is coloured paper.

Names

Names are where even native speakers stop guessing. Family names lean toward kun'yomi: 田中 (たなか), 山田 (やまだ), 木村 (きむら), 小林 (こばやし). But 佐藤 (さとう), usually ranked as the most common surname in Japan, is on'yomi, and so are 加藤 (かとう) and 伊藤 (いとう). Place names are just as mixed. 東京 (とうきょう) and 京都 (きょうと) are on'yomi, while 大阪 (おおさか), 横浜 (よこはま) and 広島 (ひろしま) are kun'yomi.

Given names can use readings that exist only in names, and one spelling can have several possible readings. That's why Japanese forms have a separate box for writing your name in kana, and why people routinely ask each other how a name is read.

Learn words, and the readings come with them

It's tempting to memorize each kanji along with its full list of readings. 生 has two on'yomi and ten kun'yomi on the official list, and being able to recite all twelve tells you nothing about which one a given word uses.

Learning one or two common words per reading works better. If you know 学生 (がくせい, student), 生まれる (うまれる, to be born) and 生ビール (なまビール, draft beer), you know three readings of 生 and when each applies.

That leaves the rules of thumb with a narrower job. They're for the moment you meet an unfamiliar word and want a first guess before you look it up:

1. If hiragana is attached to the kanji, try kun'yomi.
2. If it's a block of two or more kanji, try on'yomi for each one.
3. If it's one kanji alone, try kun'yomi first, then on'yomi.
4. If it's a time word, a family word or a name, expect something irregular and check.

Common questions