Hello, Miko here.

(Note: I’m not going to repeat this format, I don’t

think it’s very efficient.)

Kanji are sometimes simple and sometimes complex characters derived

from the Chinese language.

Each Kanji is used to represent some kind of meaning, and so in this

document, we will go through a couple.

Apparently, you need to know at least approximately 2000 Japanese

Kanji in order to be able to read a lot of things. That may not seem like
a lot, but each Kanji comes with phrases. Tons of them. You’ll have to
keep fighting in order to become fluent in Japanese!

In Chinese, some Hanzi (Kanji) has 1, 2, or maybe even 3 readings, but

usually, it’s just 1 reading. However, in Japanese, 1 Kanji can have like
10 readings. These are usually only for the very simple Kanji though,
such as Up and Down. Honestly, it’s pretty annoying, but keep
practicing and you’ll get the hang of it.

There are 2 types of readings in Japanese. Kun’yomi and On’yomi.

Kun’yomi - The original Japanese way of pronouncing a Kanji that
sounds nothing like the Chinese counterpart

On’yomi - The Chinese way of pronouncing a Hanzi (Kanji) is changed

into a way that sounds more Japanese.

Kanji is usually pronounced in the Kun’yomi form when hiragana comes

after the Kanji, (Called Okurigana)

Kanji is usually pronounced in On’yomi form when it’s by itself or

another Kanji comes after it to form a phrase. But these rules are not
always consistent.

Hopefully, you downloaded a Japanese dictionary as I asked. Please

search up each Kanji in the dictionary to understand how many
pronunciations a Kanji can have.

Now then, the list starts below. Have fun on your journey!
 一-1
二-2
三-3
四-4
五-5
六-6
七-7
八-8
九-9
十 - 10

(add tsu(つ) to the end of every number and it means “thing”. For
example, 一つ would mean “one thing”. Be aware that every time you do
this, it changes the pronunciation. A bit annoying, I know.)

上 - Up
下 - Down
大 - Big
工 - Construction
入 - Enter
人 - Person
山 - Mountain
口 - Mouth
力 - Power
川 - River
女 - Woman
男 - Man

Vocab
人工 - Jinkou (Artificial/Man-made)
人口 - Jinkou (Population)

大人 - Otona (Adult) *Notice how 人 here is not pronounced Jin, like the above
words. Kanji readings are not consistent in Japanese. You have to study to
know how things are pronounced. You’ll feel smart once you do, trust me.
大きい - Ookii (Big [adj]) *This is called an “i” adjective, because it’s an
adjective that ends with the hiragana “i”. It wouldn’t be an “i” adjective if the
Kanji phrase ended with an “i” sound, it’s specifically in hiragana.

下 - Shita (Down/Below)

入り口 - Iriguchi (Entrance) *I don’t know why they don’t just say 入口,
though.

大した - Taishita (Great/Large) *This is also an adjective like “Ookii”, but used in
different situations.

ください・下さい - Kudasai (Please) *The version with 下 is rare, but it’s

pronounced the same way.

力 - Chikara (Power)
川 - Kawa (River)

大きさ - Ookiisa (Size/Largeness) - さ usually means “-ness”.

一人 - Hitori (Alone/One person)

二人 - Futari (Two people)
三人 - Sannin (Three people)

*The words below are verbs in their stem form. If you don’t know how verb
conjugation works, ask me in the server.

上る - Noboru (To climb)

上げる - Ageru (To raise) *For someone or something to get higher
上がる - Agaru (To rise) *Like the stock market or something
下がる - Sagaru (To get lower) *For someone or something get lower
下げる - Sageru (To lower) *Like the stock market or something
入る - Hairu (To enter)
入れる - Ireru (To insert) *Same Kanji as the one above, but different meaning
because of the hiragana that comes after.