This kanji 場 is really starting to tick me off, I just checked its readings and it while it seems like ば is always used if a word starts with this kanji, any other place its pretty much a 50/50 between じょう and ば. I just cannot seem to get them right for the life of me. If you guys have any tips, please enlighten me!
Well it is 50/50… gamble every time and hope for the best? xD
ば is the kanji’s kun’yomi, じょう is the on’yomi. If you stick with the “like goes with like” rule of thumb, you’ll be correct more often than not.
場内 = じょうない = on-on
広場 = ひろば = kun-kun
牧場 = ぼくじょう = on-on
売り場 = うりば = kun-kun (the little bit of okurigana in between is a big clue - 乗り場 is the same)
市場 can be read as both いちば and しじょう, but both readings are still kun-with-kun and on-with-on. Honestly don’t know which reading for this is the more common, though.
It’s not perfect, mind - as with the Golden Rule in Japanese (“all rules have exceptions, including this one”), there’s exceptions. For example, 火葬場 = かそうば = on-on-kun; 馬場 = ばば = on-kun.
Heh. Just learnt the Japanese word for dressage is ばばばじゅつ
You can easily remember the reading with a simple rule.
When the reading is stupid, it uses ば, for ばか.
When the reading is a joke, it uses じょう, for じょうだん.
sorry, this is a stupid joke
The meaning changes depending on the reading:
いちば: actual market in a town, like a farmer’s market
しじょう: market as an abstract concept, like the stock market
I was about to comment the same, but you managed before me 
Just failed this in my test exam for kanken, so learned this the hard way…
There are most likely countless others like this, like 風車, that make us non-natives cry about how hard the system is for us 
Thanks for this, but I actually don’t really associate my readings with kunyomi and onyomi when I learn, so I dont know how I could use this… I just somehow understand the correct readings for most of them.
Well, your other option is to forget about readings, just remember vocab. Instead of looking at, say, 駐車場 and going “is that くるま or しゃ? Is that ば or じょう?”, instead you just remember that it’s a word which is pronounced ちゅうしゃじょう.
I think I might be able to get the hang of this, thank you!
Ive been trying to do this, but this one kanji seems to have so many vocab that I just dont get it right
Funny, I just failed at stupid vocabulary including that kanji again and thought I really have to find a way how to memorise that little fucker. Whenever a vocabulary comes up, I just type whatever comes to my mind first, because in the end I mess up either way.
Hate it. I think I might just write it down in sheer rage for some days and let my hate get the best of it. I always remember my enemies, so it might be better to turn it into my kanji-hate-number-1.
場所 ばしょ is kun-on and one of the most common words containing this character. It is neither じょうしょ or ばところ. Quite a terror!
My advice to anyone having trouble remembering this particular exception is to watch lots of sumo until you remember it. Luckily, there’s a 場所 (sumo tournament) starting tomorrow which runs for two weeks.
I hope this tip helps anyone struggling with 場. はっけよい！
I just use a mnemonic if I can’t remember a reading with either a guy named Joe or a sheep going baa 
(You know, farms. Where they herd flocks of Joe’s).
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