READING IS HARD

Hii! So i need help with one thing mainly. I often get confused between vocabukary, onyomi and kunyomi readings. Anyone able to explain it??

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Well, others would explain it better, but basically the main tendency is this:
If a vocabulary consits of one kanji with or without some kana – then the reading would usually be kun’yomi, for example:
火 - ăČ - fire
ç™œă„ - しろい - white
If a vocabulary consists of several kanji - then it’s usually on’yomi readings, for example:
火汱 - かざん - volcano
ç™œéł„ - はくちょう - swan

There are many exceptions; also, words that contain kanji for body parts tend to have kun’yomi readings, for example, æ‚Ș揣 - わるぐち。

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There is an explanation of this at Tofugu:

Short story: on’yomi is a reading imported from China when the Kanji was introduced in Japan. Kun’yomi is a reading with the native Japanese pronunciation when the kanji was adapted to Japanese culture and language. Some kanji may have multiple on’yomi or/and kun’yomi readings. The vocabulary reading is the reading that applies to a specific word, either on or kun.

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But so far almost all the words I have seen that have 2 kanji are onyomi because they’re jukugo. Do they introduce mainly kunyomi readings for more than one kanji later on?

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Yeah, æ‚Ș揣 is one of many other examples.
苊手 is another.
there are also words that use on’yomi for one kanji and kun’yomi for another.

Not to be picky, but to clarify: This is supposed to say on’yomi, not kun’yomi. Hopefully this avoids any confusion for OP

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Tysm to everyone who has responded so far!!

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I was gonna say
it didn’t seem right.

Most of the words that have 2 kanji are onyomi— at least it has been like this for me up to level 7.

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Yeah, sorry, I meant to say on’yomi; I’ve fixed it :sweat_smile:

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