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I've just began learning some Kanji by looking-up how the numbers are written
(and read) and suddenly bumped into confusion while watching some tutorials. I
can hear the tutors pronouncing a number in on-yomi (just like in a
dictionary, where all on-yomi are written in Katakana) but for some reason
they write these number Kanji in Hiragana (instead of Katakana). Is it to make
the learning process easier by keeping attention away from yet another script
(Katakana) or do they write on-yomi with Katakana only in dictionaries whereas
in real life they actually write on-yomi with Hiragana (just like kun-yomi is
written with Hiragana in dictionaries)?
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2016-02-19T06:40:05.440
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question
kanji readings numbers
Why some tutorials teach writing Japanese numbers with Hiragana when they are actually written with Katakana (as on-yomi) in dictionaries?
> they write on-yomi with Katakana only in dictionaries whereas in real life
> they actually write on-yomi with Hiragana (just like kun-yomi is written
> with Hiragana in dictionaries)?

↑ This is the answer. Using katakana to indicate on-yomi is one convenient way
to distinguish on and kun, but not all dictionaries do so.

In everyday life, the reading of 五, for example, is usually written as ご
(hiragana) even if it's on-yomi. Take a look at some random questions in this
site and you can find that readings of kanji are almost always indicated in
hiragana.
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2016-02-19T07:07:45.297
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Because it's a long tradition of kanji dictionaries, succeeded from the "first
Japanese kanji dictionary"
[漢和大字典](http://kindai.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/862746/64).

Technically, kanji were foreign notions in Japanese; _on'yomi_ was the
**pronunciation** , and _kun'yomi_ was its **definition** in Japanese.
Therefore, it's very natural that they used katakana to mark the former, and
hiragana for the latter. Suppose there's a dictionary entry _fiancé_ -- it's
the kanji; and next to the headword is [fee-ahn-SEY] -- it's the on'yomi;
following it will be written "betrothed" -- this is the kun'yomi.

For this reason, every dictionary that explains kanji writes on'yomi in
katakana and kun'yomi in hiragana to this day, even though we use them both in
hiragana unless there are special meanings.
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2016-02-19T07:37:47.977
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answer
In general, outside of specialised contexts like dictionaries and books for
young children, Japanese words are written in hiragana while non-Japanese
words are written in katakana or romaji. Since the Japanese numbers are
Japanese words, they should normally be written out in hiragana (いち、に、さん、よん).
For most practical purposes, of course, they are written in Arabic numerals
(1,2,3,4) or kanji (一、二、三、四).

It's also the case that many Japanese courses for foreigners teach hiragana
first, katakana second, and kanji later. Since the numbers are always an early
topic when learning a new language, it is likely that only hiragana will be
known by the student at the time (besides romaji, that is).
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2018-10-07T04:21:04.020
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answer