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I was reading
[this](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_numerals#Basic_numbering_in_Japanese)
article on Japanese numerals and I first encountered the whole On reading/Kun
reading thing, with an additional column on "Preferred reading," which was
almost always the On reading.

Do native Japanese speakers know both readings for every Kanji? What influence
does this have on the language? What is the use and application of this
knowledge? Should I bother learning the non-preferred reading?
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2012-07-20T14:56:22.903
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kanji readings
What's with this "On reading"/"Kun reading" thing? Is it important to learn both as a beginner?
With Japanese numbers, yes, you must know both/all readings; it is important
to be able to tell 「[九人]{きゅうにん}」 from 「[九時]{くじ}」 from 「[九]{ここの}つ」.
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Regarding on'yomi, English has a very similar counterpart. You mentioned
numbers, so consider the following:

  1. uni-, mono-
  2. bi-, di-, duo-
  3. tri-, ter-
  4. quadri-, tetra-
  5. quinque-, penta-
  6. sexa-, hexa-
  7. septua-, hepta-
  8. octo-
  9. nona-
  10. dec-

Just like in English, the more of these roots (on) that know in Japanese, the
easier it will be for you to understand and create new words. Often multiple
on readings are generally grouped with other on readings to create a word. In
this sense, they are similar to roots.

> Do native Japanese know both readings for every Kanji?

Japanese is a citizenship. It can be obtained or lost. There is no correlation
between citizenship and linguistic ability. If I am guessing your intent, then
you likely mean "native speakers of Japanese".

And to answer the question: a native speaker of Japanese does not know all on
and kun readings for every kanji. However, they will know most of all common
ones and likely know a few uncommon ones as well.

> What influence does this have on the language?

For the most part, loanwords.

> What is the use and application of this knowledge?

A wider vocabulary.

> Should I bother learning the non-preferred reading?

Absolutely. But why do you say "non-preferred"?
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> Do native Japanese know both readings for every Kanji?

As much has every Roman knew latin. Some kanji have a

  * large number of on-readings (consider 行: AN, GYOU, KOU, which are comonly known),
  * plus a large number of kun-readings (行: i(ku), okona(u), yu(ku), i(keru), kudari)
  * plus several "Nanori" - readings that are used in first names (行: nami, michi,...).

> What influence does this have on the language?

Consider the characters 大,人, and 気:

  * 大 (KUN:) oo(i), (ON:) DAI, TAI = big
  * 人 (KUN:) hito, (ON:) NIN, JIN = person
  * 気 (ON:) ki, ke

now combine those:

  * 大人 (KUN:) otona = adult
  * 人気 (KUN:) hitoke = trace of human life, (also ON: NINKI)
  * 大人気 (ON:) DAININKI = very popular

you see, context-sensitive choice of readings.

> Should I bother learning the non-preferred reading?

Should you encounter the character in an unfamiliar combination with another
character, you'll have to exhaust every possible reading in a Japanese
dictionary to either find it, find that the dictionary is insufficient or that
you lack another reading, in which case you must consult a separate character
dictionary.
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Everyone has answered this really well, but I'd like to add some points that I
wish someone had told me when I began learning.

The On-yomi is taken from the original Chinese reading of the kanji, and the
Kun-yomi is the Japanese reading that has "adopted" the kanji, so to speak. As
a general rule, if the kanji is by itself, (as in, it is not attached to other
kanji, just hiragana) it generally takes on the Kun-yomi; if the kanji is part
of a compound, it (and the other half of the compound) takes on its On-yomi.

> Should I bother learning the non-preferred reading?

The answer is "yes". It's the difference between guessing the meaning of a
word and being able to read it out loud. That may not sound like much, but
it's absolutely essential.

For example: `食べる` is pronounced with its Kun-yomi, `たべる`. `事` on its own is
generally pronounced `こと`, which is the Kun-yomi. If you combine them `食事`,
they're both read with their On-yomi: `しょくじ`

Again, that's very generalized and not always the case, but it's the rule
rather than the exception.
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That highly depends if you learn only Kanji or if you learn Japanese (so Kanji
+ Vocabulary)

For Example nearly every kun-reading of most Kanji will be covered in
Vocabulary anyway,

So you may learn the Kanji 食 with its kun-reading 食べる, but when you learn
Vocabulary you will learn for sure the word 食べる anyway.

I personally learn only kun-readings when learning kanji if the kun-reading is
not going to be learned in my vocabulary learning anyway.

You can do the same for on-reading and then not much is left anyway because
nearly every on-reading is used in a word

I would say knowing the Readings of a Kanji is important, but its more
important to do proper vocabulary learning as you will learn the readings of
the Kanji too.

Best example for me was 飛行機, i can only remember the on-readings of those
Kanji because i know the word 「ひこうき」 and it was one of the first words i
learned.

When i was learning the On-Readings of those Kanji seperatly it was hard for
me to remember them, my brain just dont allow me to remember every on-reading
of every Kanji (even if i try hard), but thanks to the vocabulary that uses
the Kanji i can remember them.

To actually know if the used reading is on- or kun-reading is more important!

So if you see a word for example 飛行機 (ひこうき) it is important to know if the
readings used in this word are on- or kun-reading.

And Kun-Readings are "Vocabulary" anyway so i dont bother learning them when
learning Kanji.

So my Answer to your question:

Dont bother learning all readings perfectly. If you learn Vocabulary
afterwards you can drop the kun-reading completely as they are covered there.

You should try to learn as much on-readings as possible but i tell you
something.

If you see a word you never seen before, its even for japanese nearly
impossible to guess which reading to use as it depends on so incredible many
things.

If you know the Word (written with Kanji), you know how to read it. If you
dont know the word, you can just "guess" the readings and meanings, but that
doesnt help you really. In the end you have to lookup unkown words in
dictionary and you will see the reading then.

For me personally when learning Kanji the "meaning" of the Kanji and the way
to write it (writing is _veeery_ important to remember the Kanji correctly), i
try to drop as many readings as possible as they are covered in vocabulary
anyway.

If you want to become an Kanji Master knowing all readings, i recommend you to
wait for that until you learned Japanese, if you are able to read/speak
Japanese you know already most of kun-readings and on-readings so you only
have to learn a very little then.
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I'm in total agreement with 白川's answer. It's difficult memorizing all the
readings especially the onyomi ones because much of them are the same. At
times it might get confusing. I feel it better to learn the meaning, and one
of the kun/on reading. If it is a verb, I give priority to that reading. As I
am still a beginner, I have barely read any Japanese yet. But like 白川 says,
I'll count on the vocabulary that I come across while reading to learn the
readings.
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[BenderRodriguez9](https://old.reddit.com/user/BenderRodriguez9)'s
[explanation](https://old.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/yw8yy8/kunyomi_and_onyomi_are_driving_me_insane/iwjnjbr)
is my absolute favorite! I edited to make it easier to read.

* * *

Here’s my example. Imagine if English were written with Kanji.

English has native Germanic words, as well as borrowings from Greek and Latin.
For example, English has _water_ , but also _aqua_ (Latin) and _hydro_
(Greek).

So in English's imaginary kanji system, 水 would have the kun’yomi “water” and
the on’yomi “aqua” and “hydro”.

Then native English speakers figure out which reading for 水 is intended in a
given context, based off of your pre-existing vocabulary:

> The 水rium is powered 水-electrically with sea水.

Now this is a contrived sentence, sure. But you could easily figure out which
reading of 水 to use in which situation, because you know that some readings
just aren’t words. 水rium just can’t be “ _hydro_ rium” or “ _water_ rium”.

Native Japanese speakers do the same thing. They can use all the vocabulary
they know to deduce readings.

So you just need to study vocabulary, and apply kanji to the vocabulary you
know. Don’t do it the other way around.
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