Japanese Kanji Quiz - "on" to "kun"

Answer: Ka

"Kaku", meaning "to write". This is the plain form of the verb - the polite form is "kakimasu".

When you combine the "on" form of this kanji, "sho", with "ji", meaning "speech", you get "dictionary". Oddly, when "ji" itself is used as a verb, it means "resign".

Answer: Aka

"Akai", meaning "red". You'll see the "on" version of this kanji in words such as "sekihan", which is that rice with the red beans in it that takes on a reddish color, and is served on special occasions.

My favorite instance of the "kun" reading is the word "akachan", which I can best translate as "red darling", and which means "baby".

Answer: Chii

"Chiisai", meaning "small". My apologies if you forgot the second "i" and wrote "Chisai". "Gakkô" means school. Combine it with the "on" reading of this kanji and you get "small school" - elementary school.

For some reason, if you combine this kanji with "setsu", meaning "opinion" to make the word "shôsetsu", it means "novel". Novelists don't get no respect.

Answer: Yasu

"Yasumu", meaning "rest". Combine it with "jitsu", meaning "day", and you get "rest day" - holiday.

In its "kun" form, this kanji also appears in a common expression - "o-yasumi nasai", which translates roughly as "have a good rest", and means "good night".

Answer: U

"Umareru", meaning "to be born". The basic meaning of this very useful kanji is "life". When we combine "sei", the "on" reading, with "sen", meaning "ahead", we get "sensei". Literally meaning "ahead in life", it denotes someone who has more experience, and therefore wisdom to impart - a teacher.

As well as "umareru" (to be born), this kanji can form the base of "umu" (to give birth). It can also be used to form the base of "ikiru", meaning "to live" - as seen in the title of one of Akira Kurosawa's greatest films.

Answer: Hashi

"Hashiru", meaning "to run". Combine it with "kyô", meaning competition, and you get "race".

The "on" reading of a kanji is referred to as its "Chinese" reading. In other words, its pronunciation reflects the Chinese pronunciation of the character at the time it was introduced to the Japanese language. This is often useful to scholars trying to reconstruct ancient Chinese - in the interim, the sound may have changed more in Chinese than it has in Japanese.

The "kun" reading is referred to as the "Japanese" reading. In other words, when the character was introduced into Japanese, it was assigned to an already existing word in Japan that had the same meaning.

Answer: Waru

"Warui", meaning "evil"! You can see the "kun" in, for example, the word "warukuchi" which combines it with the kanji for "mouth" and means "malicious gossip".

Answer: Iso

"Isogu", meaning "to hurry". Combine it with "kô", meaning "go", and you get "quick-go" - express.

You may note that the "on" reading is usually shorter than the "kun", and that many kanji share the same "on". Yes indeed, there are, for example, twenty kanji in common usage with the "on" reading of "kyû". The "kun" readings are much more varied; in fact I can't think of any two kanji that share the same "kun".

Answer: Chika

"Chikai", which means "close". In combination with "jo", meaning "place", we get "kinjo" - neighborhood.

Combined with "sai", meaning "most", this kanji produces "saikin" - "recently".

Answer: Ku

"Kuru", meaning "to come". The polite form of this verb is "kimasu". Combine the "on" with "nen" (year), and we have "the coming year" - "rainen".

Combined with "shô" (command) from the well-known word "Shôgun", this kanji gives us "shôrai". Literally translated, this approximates to "command what is to come", and it means "the future".

Answer: Su

"Sumu", meaning "to live" or "to dwell". When combined with "sho", meaning "place", it makes "address".

There are very few kanji which have only one reading, but examples can be found. The kanji for "cultivated field" has only a "kun" reading - "hatake". The kanji for "seat" (as in seat on a train, or at a stadium) has only an "on" reading - "seki". Most kanji, however, have at least two readings.

Answer: Atara

"Atarashii", meaning "new". The "bun" from "shinbun" doesn't mean "paper", however. It is the "on" form of the verb "kiku" - "to hear". A more literal translation than "newspaper" might be "new tidings".

"Shin" is also part of the name of the "shinkansen", or "new trunk line", colloquially known as the bullet train.

Answer: Futo

"Futoru", meaning "to get fat". When added to the character "yô", which is the Japanese pronunciation of "yang" (as in "Yin and Yang") and means "hot, dry, restless, etc", it makes "the sun".

The "on" form - "tai" - also appears in "taiheiyô", where it is added to "peace" and "sea" and makes "the Pacific Ocean". In both these cases, this kanji seems to me to have a very positive connotation of "being big, powerful and vital". In present-day Japan, where many, many people are obsessed with staying thin, this is certainly not the connotation of its "kun" verb, "futoru", meaning to get fat. I assume the reason for this discrepancy is that in the distant past, when the kanji was adopted into Japanese, life was more precarious, with famine always just around the corner, and getting fat really was a positive thing - it showed that you were well-off and well-fed.

Answer: Atsu

"Atsui", meaning "hot". "Chû", one of the most commonly used characters, simply means "middle". "Hot-middle" - midsummer.

The opposite of "atsui" is "samui", which has an "on" reading of "kan". "Kanchû" means - you guessed it - "midwinter".

Answer: Ugo

"Ugoku", meaning "to move". Combine it with "butsu", meaning "thing", and you have "thing that moves" - animal.

Combine the "on" reading with "un" - "carry" - and you get "undô", which means "exercise". If you combine it with the characters for "self" and "vehicle", to get "self-moving vehicle", the translation into English is almost literal - "jidôsha", which means "automobile".

Answer: Utsuku

"Utsukushii", meaning "beautiful". Combined with "jutsu" (technique) and "kan" (hall), it gives us "art gallery".

"Bijin" means "beautiful woman", even though the kanji for "jin" means simply "person" and not "female". I suppose it's so self-evident that only women can be beautiful that the coiners of "beautiful person" felt no need to specify the gender to get their meaning across.

Kanji are not necessarily limited to one "on" and/or one "kun". Some have a bewildering variety of readings. For example, the kanji for "down" has two "on" readings - "ka" and "ge". It has several "kun" forms, such as "shita" (under), "moto" (base) and "sagaru" (to hang down). It also forms the base "kuda", which appears in one of the most common words in the language - "kudasai" (please).

Answer: Tano

"Tanoshii", meaning "pleasant" or "fun". Combine it with "on" (sound), and we get "ongaku", literally "pleasant sound" - music.

The "kun" form of this character can often be heard in "tanoshimi!", meaning "I'm looking forward to it!"

Answer: Naga

"Nagareru", meaning "to flow". If you combine the "on" with "den" (electricity), you get "flowing electricity" - electric current. The "on" also appears in "ryûkô", which combines "flow" and "go" and means "fashion".

Another use of the "kun" reading is in "nagareboshi", which means "flowing star" - in English, we'd call it a "shooting star".

Answer: Soso

"Sosogu", which has two meanings. The first is "to pour", as in to pour water, and the second is "to concentrate", as in, I assume, to pour one's attention on something. When combined with "i" (mind), it makes "chûi" - warning or advice.

When this kanji is combined with "moku" (eye) it gives us "chûmoku" - observation.

Answer: Soda

"Sodateru", meaning "to bring up" a child. Combine it with "kyô", (teach), and it makes "education", with which many parents in Japan are obsessed. In fact, this word is part of a familiar expression in Japan - "kyôiku mama", or "education mama", used to refer to a maternal parent who is already preparing to get her child into the best university before he or she can even crawl.

There are plenty of other interesting words in which this kanji appears, but I think that's enough for today - hope you enjoyed this kanji quiz!