The reading for these two vocabs make sense, but use completely different “rules”.
Any tips for how to remember which rules to apply?
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It might help if you explained what “rules” you’re talking about.
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well, I relate the reading of 一本気 with Roppongi (Tokyo) hehe, this works for me.
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The reading of 一 changes from いち to いっ in almost all of the words in which it is followed by a kana that can take dakuten゛ (Like か can take dakuten to become が.) The kana はひふへほ will change to ぱぴぷぺぽ.
After learning enough vocabulary, I started to be able to subconsciously tell what the reading should be, so you should be able to get used to it over time.
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@seanblue
Sorry, and welcome to WK!
For 一本気 we get いっぽんぎ so that’s one “rule” for converting the kanji to reading.
For 一年生 we get いちねんせい, so that’s the other rule.
I keep getting tripped on which process to use.
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@TheCodingFox Thank you! I’ll try relating the reading to the potential dakuten, and see how that goes.
We now how they are read, but I don’t see how just saying the reading counts as a rule. Could you elaborate?
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Don’t get feisty now, whippersnapper.
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Are you such an 一本気 that you can’t remember 一本気？
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I find that when the next sound starts with a plosive sound like p, k, etc then いち usually becomes いっ but that’s not always the case, probably.
You’ll get used to it with time and practice.
Assuming you saw the “first post” banner, that was for the poster after me. I’ve been around for quite a while. 
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Though to be fair, OP’s been around longer!
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I did notice that, which made it even more surprising.
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@russellr I only skimmed this site, so it may not be perfect. But maybe it’ll help.
http://www.genetickanji.com/docs/pronunciation-change-rules-japanese.html
I also recommend listening to a lot of Japanese in your preferred medium. You’ll get used to these sound changes over time, to the point that you’d be able to correctly guess the reading from sound changes (or lack thereof) 99% of the time.
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Oh yeah, sorry about that!
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Thank you!
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^
haha awesome! same mnemonic here… 
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I use ‘he’s pongy’ (i-pon-gi)
pongy being slang for smelly, so I think of a nerdy school boy with body odour ‘uuughh he pongy’
xD 不味いですね。
I drew a ぐでたま in the shape of Tsukuba Circuit with a word balloon with 一本気 in it.
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