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? asked in Society & CultureLanguages · 7 years ago

Easy question, can someone who knows Kanji explain this to me?

http://kanjidamage.com/kanji/1-one-line-radical-%E...

I don't understand how to know if it's ichi or itsu? Also there is another pronunciation of tsui? like in tsuitachi?

I assume the onyomi is only ever used with other kanji and if hiragana or okurigana is present it's kunyomi pronunciiation?

It's just very confusing to me. Can someone explain it simply how to tell which pronunciation it is?

1 Answer

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  • 7 years ago
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    The pronunciation of 一 changes depending on how you use it. If you're just using 一 by itself, then it would just be pronounced "ichi". This is how you say it when counting (e.g. ichi, ni, san, yon, go, etc...).

    "Itsu" isn't really a pronunciation for 一, but I think that dictionary (or whatever kind of site it is) wrote "itsu" because using 一 in phrases like 一緒 (issho) writes the pronunciation with いっ. However, note that いっ is NOT the same as いつ, as っ has a special meaning in Japanese (if you don't know it, look up "sokuon").

    But anyway, 一 can have several different pronunciation depending on the phrases it's used in. For example (as listed on that page):

    一 (ichi) as a standalone word

    一度 (ichido) uses the regular pronunciation

    一緒 (issho) uses the いっ pronunciation

    一人 (hitori) uses the kunyomi pronunciation

    一つ (hitotsu) also uses kunyomi

    一日 (tsuitachi) is an exception in pronunciation

    To be honest, I wouldn't really worry about memorizing/learning the onyomi/kunyomi of a particular kanji by itself; in my opinion, you should focus more on learning the kanji's pronunciation in particular phrases, such as those listed above, rather than learning ALL the onyomi/kunyomi of one kanji with no context.

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