Radicals and Kanji

[rfindley]

A cross-link from a previous post that may answer your question in more detail, and a few other questions that you may have some day. (You’ll need to click the link to read the whole thing):

How do you know when to use the right reading?

In daily usage, vocabulary is the only reading that matters. It’s what you’ll see on a sign, or in a restaurant menu, or in a novel that you’re reading. A word is (usually) only pronounced one way. But the same kanji in a different word may be pronounced differently. To illustrate with English, the words ‘cat’ and ‘civil’ are each only pronounced one way. But notice that ‘c’ is in both words, and is pronounced differently in each. ‘c’ can sound like either ‘k’ or ‘s’. That’s how it works w…