Pronunciation of kanji

Hello :)

may be could anyone clarify the pronunciation of 入
When it is pronounce   い or  はい or にゅう.
Is there any rule?

Many thanks

Well, the general rule is that all kanjis (ie nearly all) have several ways how to pronounce them. This is true not only for 入　but for all 2000 + kanjis used in Japanese.

The basic principle is that there is kun and on-yomi .

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanji#Kun'yomi_(native_reading)

Normally this principle is explained quite early on by your teacher. If she/he hasn’t explained that yet. Please ask her/him.

But even within Kun-yomi and on-yomi there are different ways how to pronounce. Because the kanji is the MEANING not necessarily the sound.

For 入　both “I” and “hai “ are kun-yomi. Iru 入る　being the intransitive verb and 入る　hairu being the transitive. As you see apparently both “iru” as well as “hairu” are both written as 入る so only from the context one can understand if the transitive or intransitive verb is meant. (Or from the conjugated version. Ie 入って　“haitte “ vs 入れって　irette. Same te-form for both verbs.

The general idea kun -yomi is that it is the Japanese word for the meaning. Eg 入　means “inside “ in various different ways. Like “to enter” , “to put in(side)”,” entrance”...

Eg 食　means “eating, food...”. In Japanese before kanjis were imported already a word for “to eat” existed:taberu. So once Japan started to import kanji from China they saw 食　and knew that it means “eating”. So then they used it to be read “ta “ in 食べる. But the Chinese reading (on-yomi) was „shoku „ that’s where the word shokuji 食事　comes from.

With “hairu” and “iru” in Japanese already two verbs existed that both can be represented by the idea of “inside” that is contained in 入. So the Japanese took this one kanji and used it for both verb forms. The transitive and intransitive.

Now the pronounciation “nyuu “ is one if the on-yomis. The general idea of on-yomi is that it is the “Chinese “ pronounciation. But this is what the Japanese made if the Chinese pronounciation when they first imported the kanji. Pronounciation in China has changed over time. Plus Japanese didn’t always get the pronounciation right. And some kanjis we’re imported multiple times from different parts of China. Something that in the 15 century in central China was pronounced as “ko” to Japanese ears may have been pronounced as ”kyuu “ several hundred years earlier in an other part of China.

For some kanjis one can still very clearly hear the Chinese pronounciation in the Japanese. Eg the “sha “ sound in “kansha” 感謝 is very clearly the same (well, quite similar) sound and meaning as in Chinese 謝謝　https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/謝謝

But with other kanjis the on-yomi is now very far to the standard Chinese pronunciation of the kanji as the two languages have evolved for a long time.

How to know how to pronounce them?. Well, a lot goes down to studying kanjis with their pronounciation. But the general idea is that compound words of multiple kanjis are more likely to be read both in on-yomi, while a single kanji specially combined with some more hiragana has more chances to be in kun-yomi. But this isn’t a 100% rule.

It’s probably true around 90% or so (gut feeling) and 入 is a good example.

入口　iriguchi although it is a combination of two kanji isn’t pronounced nyuukou , but with kun-yomi for both kanjis.

If you don’t know the word you have no way to knowing the correct pronounciation. I remember a Taiwanese colleague of mine who speaks Japanese extremly well was surprised that 通行止　つうこうどめ　wasn’t tsuukoushi , which admittedly makes more sense. Tsuu and kou are both on-yomi while tome (or the more “weak “ form of “dome” )is kun -yomi . So within the same word some kanji are pronounced as in-yomi and others as kun-yomi. But this is the exception.

I would guess that about 80-90% , if the word consists of multiple kanjis it’s On-yomi. But no guarantee for that. Plus as there are also different on-yomis due to different imports of same kanji . So you can’t really know how to pronounce it anyway.

Well, don’t panic. It will become clearer and clearer aS you study more. Your teacher should also CRA me to help you through this bump. And trust me (N2 level european) after some time you starrt to begin getting a feeling for it. Not always correct. But as a good guideline.

Enjoy studying Japanese!

Learn words and their associated kanji. Not kanji and their associated readings.

● 「the pronunciation of 入. When it is pronounce い or はい or にゅう. Is there any rule?」
The first thing to understand is that pretty much all kanji have two different ways they can be pronounced. Pronunciation 1 (called the "kunyomi pronunciation") is for if the kanji is used by itself or is followed by hiragana (non-kanji phonetic script), and Pronunciation 2 (called the "onyomi" pronunciation) is for if the kanji is used as part of a combination with other kanji

入 is an especially tricky kanji, though, because it has TWO possible kunyomi pronunciations, and so when you add in its onyomi pronunciation there are three possible pronunciations in total.

● 入れる - When you see it written this way, 入 is pronounced "i" and the whole word is "ireru." It's a verb meaning "insert."
● 入る - In this writing, 入 is pronounced "hai" and the whole word is "hairu," meaning "enter."
● 入(+some other kanji) - In this situation, 入 is usually pronounced "nyuu." Some examples: 入国 (nyuukoku / immigration), 入社 (nyuusha / joining a company), 入金 (nyuukin / payment)

As you learn more vocabulary and kanji, you'll be able to spot more and more situations like this. For example, 来る / kuru means "come," and 月 / tsuki means "moon." But when you combine them as 来月, they change to their onyomi pronunciations and become "raigetsu," literally "next moon," which s how you say "next month" in Japanese.

●「Learn words and their associated kanji. Not kanji and their associated readings.」

While it's definitely useful to learn complete vocabulary words and the kanji with which they're written, it's also useful to know the readings (and meanings) of individual kanji. Doing so will allow you to read compound words you haven't previously memorized/had explained to you, and will also help you derive the meanings of written words you're seeing for the first time.

If, for example, you limit your learning process to this:
1. "Hairu" means "enter"
2. Hairu is written with kanji as 入る
3. Okay, done. Next word: "Kuni" means country
4. Kuni is written in kanji as 国. Okay, next word...
...then you'll be starting from scratch if you see see the word 入国 and want to pronounce it, or if you hear the word "nyukoku" and want to know what it means. Ditto for 入金/nyukin, 入社/nyusha, etc. But if you take the extra time to learn what the kanji 入 itself means/signifies, and how to pronounce it depending on how it's used, it'll help you derive the meaning/pronunciation of words you're encountering for the first time.

It's similar to an understanding of phonics/sounding out words in English. Yes, some words have irregular pronunciations, so phonics aren't helpful 100 percent of the time. A solid understanding of them is a lot better than just trying to memorize the pronunciation of every new word you see.

Basically, if you never attempt to learn what individual kanji mean or how they're pronounced, in the long run you're going to have to do a lot more rote memorization in learning Japanese.

@ LikeBike
Thank you very much for the detailed explanation and the time you took for it. I enjoyed reading it. Although I am aware of the different pronunciation of Kanjis I ignore when to pronounce it how Kun-yomi or on-yomi.
[For 入　both “I” and “hai “ are kun-yomi. Iru 入る　being the intransitive verb and 入る　hairu being the transitive. As you see apparently both “iru” as well as “hairu” are both written as 入る so only from the context one can understand if the transitive or intransitive verb is meant.]

Thanks for this but how do you know if it's transitive or intransitive before reading the entire phrase. The same question goes for 家. I am aware of the different pronunciations and meanings rsp. ie and uchi but how do you know what's meant if 家 is written at the beginning of the phrase and you don't know what's following?



@....
Many thanks to you for your help!

[● 入れる - When you see it written this way, 入 is pronounced "i" and the whole word is "ireru." It's a verb meaning "insert."
● 入る - In this writing, 入 is pronounced "hai" and the whole word is "hairu," meaning "enter."
● 入(+some other kanji) - In this situation, 入 is usually pronounced "nyuu." Some examples: 入国 (nyuukoku / immigration), 入社 (nyuusha / joining a company), 入金 (nyuukin / payment)]

That's a pretty good help and exactly what I was hoping to find ! Thanks for that!

Concerning learning I agree:  Following my course a Kanji was introduced with its general meaning not always its pronunciation. I like this method because by this way you often can guess the meaning of an unknown word without knowing exactly its translation. So you are able as a beginner to read easy Japanese texts without looking up every new word but by understand the general meaning. I find this very encouraging and for me it`s fun.

But anyway sometimes I can't figure out things and although Furigana helps this doesn`t mean I understand always why it's prononced that way.

Thanks again it helped a lot and exactly these things make fun studying Japanese I think.Could you recommend any book or dictionary which explains these things for the mainly used Kanjis? :)

●「how do you know if it's transitive or intransitive before reading the entire phrase?」

Determining whether the verb is transitive or intransitive depending on how its kanji is being used isn't something you'll have to do all too often. A lot of verbs only have transitive forms (like eat/taberu/食べる) and a lot of verbs only have intransitive forms (like go/iku/行く).

When a verb does have both a transitive or intransitive form, though, a lot of times you just have to memorize which is which. For example:

1. With 入れる/ireru and 入る/hairu, ireru is the transitive, and hairu is the intransitive.
2. With 開ける/akeru (open) and 開く/aku (to be open), akeru is the transitive, and aku is the intransitive

This might make you think "Ah, if the verb is a kanji followed by two hiragana it's the transitive form, and if it's a kanji followed by one hiragana it's the intransitive form, right?" That's not always true, though. Here are two other verb sets, in which both the transitive and intransitive forms are kanji with two hiragana:

3. 閉める/shimeru (close - transitive) and 閉まる/shimaru (to be closed - intransitive)
4. 始める/hajimeru (start - transitive) and 始まる/hajimaru (start - intransitive)

As you can see with shimeru/shimaru and hajimeru/hajmaru, often the transitive form's first hiragana is from the -e line (ke/se/te/ne/he/me/re), and the intransitive form's first hiragana comes from the -a line (ka/sa/ta/na/ha/ma/ra). This rule of thumb even works with the transitive forms of 入れる (iREru) and 開ける　(aKEru).

●「Could you recommend any book or dictionary which explains these things for the mainly used Kanjis? 」

I like The Complete Guide to Japanese Kanji, which is published by Tuttle. It's not super in-depth, but i t gives you the basics for all the 2,100-plus standard kanji - how're they're written and why they're written that way, kunyoi and onyomi pronunciations, and a few example vocabulary words showing them in combination with other kanji. It also follows the Japanese grade school education order, starting with simpler kanji and then moving on to more complex ones.

As for dictionaries, I use a Seiko SR-M4000 model electronic dictionary for work fairly often, which has both E-J and J-E dictionaries as well as a kanji dictionary. You can probably get similar performance just by Googling "English kanji dictionary" though, which would be a much cheaper option.

Many thanks again .... :)