Kanji

Ideograms

You remember the kanji? Ideograms that began to be used in Japan after contact between the Japanese and the Chinese? Then, they can be divided into three groups:

• Pictographic: are the ideograms that describe objects or phenomena. For example: 

人（hito）= people

木（ki）= tree

• Simple: represent ideas, for example:

二（ni）= two

• Compounds: these are formed by combining two kanji, for example:

木（tree）＋木（tree）＝ 林（hayashi = wood）

口（mouth）＋鳥（bird）＝ 鳴く（naku = sing）

人（people）＋木（tree）＝ 休む（yasumu = rest）

Okurigana and Furigana

Here we will learn about two "accessories" kanji, called okurigana and furiganada, both are simple.

Okurigana

愛してる（aishiteru）＝ I love you

The kanji 愛 is "ai" and the hiragana してる is "shiteru", when joining the kanji "ai" with hiragana 'shi', 'te' and 'ru' form the word aishiteru（愛してる）, the three letters in hiragana after the kanji are called okurigana, then okurigana are the letters that are written in hiragana after a kanji to form a phrase, very simple.

Furigana  

The furigana is used to show the form of pronunciation of a kanji. (Usually) on the right side or on top of kanji is written their way of pronunciation in hiragana. Look:  

The furigana is used with children who can not yet read the kanji, but read the words if they are in hiragana, it is also used with adults in words written with unusual or rare kanji. The furigana is also used in some books about Japanese language for foreigners and Japanese names as the kanji may have more than one form of reading.