掲示板 Forums - Question(s) about Kanji! (Mainly Kunyomi/Onyomi Readings)
Top > 日本語を勉強しましょう / Let's study Japanese! > Anything About Japanese
I'm struggling a bit with kanji. Though, I know; I walked into this knowing that it wouldn't be an easy ride. I also know most or even all of my hiragana/katakana by memory at this point. I have questions about the Kunyomi/Onyomi readings, however, because I am mildly confused about how they're used, or even read.
Are they just different ways to speak the same Kanji? What do the periods mean between characters in those readings? (I kind of think I know the answer to that one, but I want to make sure I'm not wrong). How do I use or say the characters after the period? Is the period just a seperation between the hiragana/katakana characters for whatever reason or just a pause in the speech? When is Kunyomi used vs. Onyomi? I've tried looking it up but I'm not very certain. I thought I'd ask my fellow Japanese learners here who probably know more about it than I do. 
Also, while you're here, I saw Renshuu's note about Japanese being pitch based when I was learning about words in Japanese. What should I do to understand how that works? Watch YouTube videos of a conversation? I want some suggestions for that too, if you have any.
Thank you all so much! Also, feel free as a bird in the sky to tell me more about the Kanji that people usually get misconceptions about! You can even give me some tips for learning Kanji, because I'll sure need some! I'm personally starting by learning definitions in English... and yeah, I asked about the Kunyomi and Onyomi readings already, so I don't need to restate that. Please let me know! I'll take any information I can get with WIIIIIIDE OPEN arms. 
The period (sometimes brackets) shows you the 送り仮名(おくりがな). It's purely visual, you don't read them any differently. It usually only applies to Kunyomi. For example: 探す → さが (す) / さが.す
Kunyomi / 訓読み are (usually) used for native Japanese words. Typically, when you see a kanji by itself or followed by 送り仮名, it's probably Kunyomi.
Onyomi / 音読み are derived from the old Chinese readings of kanji, and are (usually) used in compound words. Typically, when you see a word made up of two or more kanji, they probably use Onyomi.
Exceptions like Kunyomi compounds (雨水(あまみず)) or mixed reading compounds are fairly common, so you just kinda need to learn those individually.
A lot of people, including myself, like to learn kanji in the context of vocabulary. So you just learn that 今日(きょう) is written like that and don't ask questions :D
As you learn more vocabulary and more kanji you'll start noticing certain patterns. Things like phonetic components (that help you guess the Onyomi of a kanji) and semantic components that give you hints about the meaning of a kanji.
For example, if a kanji contains 義, most of the time It'll have ギ as an Onyomi (or at least one of them). So if you see 蟻 you can guess that its Onyomi is ギ. That's an example of a phonetic component.
An example of a semantic component is 魚. If a kanji has it, it likely has something to do with aquatic life. E.g. 鮫, 鮭, 鰔, etc.
Hopefully that makes sense, I'm a little tired today 
Edit: Oh, and keep in mind compounds don't always make sense in terms of the individual kanji used to write them. E.g. 寿司 / すし [ 当て字(あてじ) ]
Ohhhh, I see how that works now. Thank you for telling me more about how Kunyomi and Onyomi works, I appreciate it!! 
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