56114
I've had two vocabulary lists where _wakarimasu_ is written as 分かります. However
most of the time in news articles and manga I find it back as just わかります. So I
wondered what is commonly used among Japanese people.

Is it like writing _ohayou_ as お早う or is it just a matter of preference?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-22T06:34:09.637
56113
2018-01-22T15:06:36.453
2018-01-22T15:06:36.453
5464
17921
question
word-choice kanji-choice
Is it more common to write "wakarimasu" with or without kanji?
Here are the hit counts from
[BCCWJ](http://pj.ninjal.ac.jp/corpus_center/bccwj/en/).

All entries (1971-2008):

  * わかった: 6492 分かった: 1739 解った: 130
  * わかります: 2834 分かります: 1065 解ります: 109
  * おはよう: 1300 お早う: 84
  * ありがとう: 7090 有難う: 420 有り難う: 102

Recent entries (2000-):

  * わかった: 4162 分かった: 1327 解った: 92
  * わかります: 2164 分かります: 989 解ります: 100
  * おはよう: 1140 お早う: 47
  * ありがとう: 5573 有難う: 332 有り難う: 95

(Note: these should contain a few false-positives such as こわかった and 随分かったるい)

So わかる is roughly 3 times more common than 分かる, but 分かる is not uncommon at
all. While お早う is becoming less and less popular, the usage of 分かる is not
declining.

I personally think both わかる and 分かる are totally fine unless you are a
professional writer who has to follow some opinionated guideline. I recommend
you write おはよう and ありがとう in hiragana.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-22T10:16:31.730
56114
2018-01-22T14:41:42.853
2018-01-22T14:41:42.853
5010
5010
56113
answer
Indeed, わかる is mostly written in _kana_.

[Corpus data](http://nlb.ninjal.ac.jp/headword/V.00015/) gives the following
proportions:

```

    わかる    58280    71%
    分かる    17700    22%
    解る       2964     4%
    判る       2580     3%
    
```

A priori there seems to be no reason not to use the _kanji_ as わ・かる is a
_jōyō_ reading of 分 (taught already in the second year of primary school).

Indeed, [this publisher](http://www.mitsumura-
tosho.co.jp/webmaga/kotoba/detail17.html) explains that for their _primary
school_ books, they use 分かる applying the principle "use _kanji_ you have
learned wherever you can". However, their secondary school books use わかる
whenever the intended meaning is "to understand/realize", since in this sense
解る or 判る might be more suited, but these readings are not official _jōyō_
readings. They explain that many dictionaries associate 分かる to
「はっきりしていなかったことに区別がつく」 — an English equivalent might be "to differentiate" —
which is close in meaning to other readings of 分 such as 分ける "to divide".

(Of course, the meaning of "understand" derives from "differentiate" and you
are free to choose to write both in _kanji_ as 分かる without raising too many
eyebrows. The above just gives some numbers/reasons showing that and
explaining why わかる might be chosen over 分かる.)
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-22T10:37:19.467
56115
2018-01-22T10:47:12.063
2018-01-22T10:47:12.063
1628
1628
56113
answer