Does WaniKani teach on'yomi and kun'yomi for every kanji?

Does WaniKani teach onyomi and kunyomi for every kanji?
If not, what percentage of kanji are only taught with the kun’yomi reading?

2 Likes

Hmmm - good question.

My understanding is as follows …

Wanikani teaches the readings that you are likely to come across. Most (?) kanji will be encountered as both Kunyomi and onyomi, and therefore both will be taught.

I am aware (after a quick jisho search) that there are some kanji where the kun reading is not taught, but where a Kun reading exists.

I am also aware after a quick look, that there are some kanji where the kunyomi is on the wanikani kanji info - but is never actually encountered in the wanikani vocab selection.

If the kunyomi is the only reading which will realistically be encountered, then that is the only one that will be taught.

Generally you will be taught Onyomi with the kanji - and kunyomi with the vocab i believe. So 体 for instance - you will learn the onyomi (たい)with the kanji, and kunyomi (からだ)with the vocab.

I am also aware I may well have just tried to answer a question i don’t know the answer to. And for this, I apologies. :slight_smile:

11 Likes

I was going to correct this reply for the third time - but instead I have taken this a sign I should go to bed instead of creeping on forums. :sweat_smile:

5 Likes

Trying to think of an easy way to get all the WaniKani kanji with readings in one big list without needing to learn how to extract data from the API…

Well, rest assured that if WaniKani doesn’t teach the on’yomi of a kanji, it’s likely you’ll never encounter that particular on’yomi in the real world.

3 Likes

42+%  

1 Like

I’m trying to think of words with on’yomi not taught on Wanikani and I can only think of 飲料(いんりょう) and 寄生虫(きせいちゅう) which are obviously words that are rarely used.

1 Like

Kanji, not words.

It’s easy to come up with words not taught by WaniKani, because WaniKani isn’t here to teach vocab.

So when you say :

Do you mean that the reading is not on the kanji page of Wanikani?(I’m just trying to understand)

It’s still the case that the on’yomi for 飲 and 虫 aren’t taught in either the kanji lessons or with a vocab word, even if the on’yomi is listed.

They’re not super rare or anything. Common enough that it’s kind of surprising they’re not taught. There are plenty of other いん or ちゅう words they could choose as well.

2 Likes

I get the impression that 虫 read as ちゅう is mostly in fairly scientific words.

Sure, but there’s words like 昆虫 and 幼虫 that are more sciency, but that everyone knows even if they don’t use them in conversation.

2 Likes

Aye, that. The kanji page lists the on’yomi readings of 虫 (for example) as ちゅう and き, even if neither is used in a vocab item.

1 Like

I am surprised that certain kun’yomi are not taught. One that comes to mind (and comes up in media pretty often?) is 自ら. I get ehy it might not be taught in the free levels, as 自 is, but warrants an entry, I feel.

1 Like

This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.