Question, how can you tell the difference between 2 characters that are EXACTLY the same but one is kanji and one is kana so they have completely different pronunciations.
For example:
夕 in Kanji means EVENING and is pronounced “YU-U” (ゆう).
夕 in Kana is pronounced TA .
There are a few more examples of this but I can’t remember them off the top of my head. When reading these symbols in a sentence, for me its impossible to tell which form i’m looking at (i.e. whether its the kanji version or the kana version). Does anyone that’s farther along in japanese know a good way to tell the different?
You won’t encounter them alone like that, unless you’re just looking at flashcards to teach kana and kanji alone.
You’ll see them in context, where the fact that it’s kanji or kana will be apparent.
Additionally, usually printed fonts kanji and kana are slightly different sizes. So the kana タ would likely appear to be like 85-90% the size of a kanji 夕. Again, it wouldn’t matter in isolation, but you wouldn’t encounter them like that.
Also, the reason that some kana look exactly like whole kanji or parts of kanji is because they are exactly that. All kana are abbreviated or cursive forms of kanji, and that’s also where their pronunciations come from.
So basically you just have to use context clues to figure out which pronunciation you need to use in that sentence? That seems easy enough but what happens when you are hearing it audibly, for instance 夕 in the sense of “evening” would be pronounced as YU-U but 右 (right) is also pronounced as YU-U.
ゆう is only used for “right” when it’s in a compound word, like 左右 (さゆう, left and right). When “right” appears alone as its own word, it’s pronounced みぎ.
True homophones exist of course, but context solves them just like in English.
Ohhh so its just like “cell” and “sell” in English, pronounced the same but spelled and meaning different. Okay I think I understand now, thank you so much!
The other thing to look out for is that conventionally, at least when stuff is handwritten, kana ought to be a little smaller than kanji. Not everyone is going to follow this rule though (and I’ve only just decided to apply it recently), so ultimately, you have to use context, as explained above.
japanese does have a lot of homophones though (words which sound the same but mean different things). this is at least in part because japanese has fewer sounds than many other languages (just 5 vowel sounds, while e.g. english has something like 16 vowel sounds). so there’s more words which sound the same than you’re perhaps used to.
one thing which can help with that is to also pay attention to tone. often words with the same sounds have different tones.
So when reading you’d notice because for example the katakana タ would probably be with other katakana characters in a katakana word e.g.
このタクシーは黄色い。（この たくしー は きいろい - This taxi is yellow) タミさはいい人だね。（たみさん は いい ひと だ ね - Tami is a good person, right)
Meanwhile the kanji 夕 will tend to appear in vocab where it is combined with another kanji or hiragana, such as:
夕方
夕べ
夕食
夕飯
Whilst some kanji can be a vocabulary all on their own like 犬、猫、子、and 夕 technically is one of them, I almost never see 夕 on its own to mean evening - I see the words 夕方 and 夕べ to say evening waaaay more.
When it comes to listening even when there are words that sound the same, you can normally tell through context what is being spoken about. Increasing the number of vocab that you know will quickly increase the sentances that you are able to understand. Having said that I find that as a language learner I can say there might be many an occassion when you mishear words, hear words you do recognise but then find out it was the combination of the end and beginning of another two words you weren’t so familiar with, or struggle to understand the meaning because of not being able to recognise the gramar patterns even when you know all the words. I recommend serveral things when it comes to being able to understand Japanese:
Increase knowledge of vocab
Increase knowledge of grammar patterns
Expose yourself to the Japanese language so you are used to hearing it - Over time what might initially sound like an audio blur of language will slowly begin to separate out into segments which you can recognise - your ability to recognise separate words and phrases will hone itself through simple exposure in combination with consistent learning.
As someone already said 右 is pronounced みぎ as a stand-alone word and will only be said as ゆう as a sort of syllable in another word, so in this case its just about knowing the vocab in which it is said.
I highly recommend using jisho.org as a go-to dictionary for any words you aren’t sure of. When you search up a word there is always a little hyperlink underneath saying ‘links’ and if you click ‘Sentance search for [insert vocab here]’ it will bring up sentences that use it. If you did that for 夕, for example, you’ll notice that it actually mostly brings up sentences where it is used in other vocab, not stand-alone, which can give you a good idea that it isn’t frequently used like that.
I don’t know if that helps but don’t worry too much about what you will and won’t understand too early on in the game as to begin with you’ll face far more limiting factors such as the extent of your vocab and grammar knowledge. Focus on increasing those first and then worry about what you actually find you struggle with understanding later on. In the meantime be patient with yourself and your language learning journey and don’t be afraid of misunderstandings and making mistakes - try to see them as learning opportunities and embrace them as part of the journey
Thank you for this! It’s all starting to make more sense, i’ll be patient with myself thought because I know over time it’ll all come together even if its a bit confusing now. Also thanks for the resource @ jisho.org, will definitely be using!
Another resource recommendation: bunpro.jp
Its kind of like the WaniKani of grammar points and I’ve been really enjoying it recently. They have a 30 day free trial which I found enough to cover all the N5 grammars (although I have done previous study and am probably more like an N3 level). Its pretty cheap in comparison to WaniKani’s premium price too. And you can technically still see all the grammar and self study I think without the premium but I find all the example sentences extremely helpful for understanding how the grammar is used. I tend to study about 9 grammar points per day atm which is a little intensive but I’m between things until borders reopen and as I said have previously studied a lot of the points so I don’t really need to read through the grammar blog posts linked under the readings section of each grammar.
Between WK, Bunpro and a good few Anki vocab decks I feel pretty covered and totally recommend the combination ^.^
Came across a train station on Google Maps recently whose sign is written like this: