Word with on'yomi and kun'yomi readings

Japanese Language Questions
1

Hi!

I was wondering, with 山道 it can be read as やまみち and さんどう, but if you read it as さんどう it has more of a formal feel to it.

So does that also apply to other words with both on’yomi an kun’yomi readings like 塩水 with しおみず and えんすい?

2 Likes
2

Yeah for the most part. Be careful for some words like 旋風 where certain definitions only apply to one form doe.

Also, I swear there were some words that had different definitions based on if you used the kunyomi or onyomi versions but my tired self can only come up with 忌日 (きにち is for death anniversaries and いまび is for a day where something bad might happen) right now. Same for 葛藤. I’m guessing 99.9% of people on here aren’t gonna need that word though so I was hoping to come up with a more common one, but I can’t think of any off the top of my head. 人気 is close with ひとけ and にんき but thats just changing one of the kanji to kunyomi.

6 Likes
3

Pretty much, yeah. In general, on’yomi has a more formal feel than kun’yomi. This also applies to different words that are synonymous, for example 出発する versus 出ます

4 Likes
4

there are quite a few when you start looking into the vocab in dictionaries that have different readings depending on different definitions. it seems to be very nuanced in a lot of them. and often what part of speech it is being used as, as well.

5

Well yeah I mean there’s words like 堪える and stuff, but in terms of jukugo that can also be read with kunyomi without adding okurigana, I couldn’t think of anymore that change the definition. If you have some feel free to list them. I feel like there’s a few common words that do that but I can’t think of them off the top of my head.

1 Like
6

Yes, there are a number of words that have different meanings depending on the reading. For example 中日 means “China and Japan” only when read as ちゅうにち. Read as なかび (and only read like that) it’s the “middle day” of a (sumo) tournament.

1 Like
7

i’d have to think a bit, as honestly it feels like context eliminates me consciously having to ever really keep track on it lol

1 Like
8

Ooh didn’t know the sumo definition actually. I just remembered 最中 is the same with もなな and さいちゅう too.

Right lol

1 Like
9

This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.