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A friend recently showed me her name in Kanji. It was 梶原｛かじわら｝。I'm trying to
figure out how I would say that "I knew that Kanji (原), but not that reading
(わら)". If I was shown the Kanji first I would have guessed either はら or ばら.

This is what I came up with:

> 漢字の「原」は知っているが読み方は「わら」だと知りませんでした。
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2016-08-21T18:27:11.627
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2021-08-30T19:35:17.903
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question
translation kanji
How to say "I knew that Kanji, but not that reading"
Your translation sounds very good already (I'm a native speaker). If I force
myself to come up with a variation of it, I got:

「原」という漢字は知っていましたが、「わら」と読むとは知りませんでした。

The most significant difference here is the use of 「～しました」 for the first 「知る」;
since you use 「～でした」 for the second 「知る」, it sounds more natural to use
「～します・しました」 form there. (Use of the past tense is just a matter of taste.)

**UPDATE**

Since I can't comment yet, I'm answering to the comments here;

@user4092 Yes, that's more correct; I missed it. Omitting 「は」 from 「だとは」 makes
you sound more casual. But 「は」 here also gives another implication. See below.

@Flaw In that case, I usually say something like 「この/その漢字を『わら』と読むとは知りませんでした」.

Combining the two points, you can say:

「この/その/『原』という漢字を『わら』と読むとは知りませんでした」

Here, 「知っていましたが」 is now omitted. 「とは」 in 「読むとは知りませんでした」 implies that you know
something about the kanji other than how to _read_ it. In this case, how to
_write_ it or that you have _seen_ it.
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2016-08-22T11:03:59.427
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answer