Hey guys! So I have a question about the verbs which mean to stop 止める, 停める and 留める。You can easily find their meanings online but my question has to do with the way they’re written. So a Japanese person wrote in a forum
「校門付近に車をとめらないでください」
While I could infer from context and familiarity with「止める」that 「とめらない」was something related to stopping the car in front of the gate, I couldn’t understand why it was written in かな rather than 漢字. I searched jisho.org for とめる and the meaning of “to park” was listed under 「止める」with no listings for 「停める」と「留める」.
Why does jisho have only one listing for those verbs which mean similar things and sound the same? Can I write 「車を止めらないでください」to mean the same as 「車を停めらないでください」? And lastly, how do Japanese people choose when to write something in Kanji vs Kana? Any tips or links to reading sources are very appreciated.
Often the kanji can indicate nuance or a more specific meaning. For example: 分かる・解る・判る or 聞く・聴く・訊く or 見る・観る・診る. Jisho just happens to combine them and not always explain the nuance.
This article has a ton of examples, though not the one you’re asking about.
Sometimes it probably just forgetting to convert to kanji. Especially online on forums and such.
Other times it is about readability. If there’s already a chain of kanji not broken by particles or okurigana, they sometimes use kana where they’d usually use kanji.
