Why sometimes some words written by kana instead of kanji?

7 comments

1. In a nutshell it’s most likely because the kanji is outside the joyo list

   Which means, the word has the kanji representation but you aren’t expected to use it.

   Other times is because the kanji is complicated

   Sometimes it might be a style thing

   Like how you might see dashi written as

   出汁　　　　出し　　　だし

2. Sometimes it’s convention particularly for words with complex or rare characters, sometimes it’s target audience specific like less kanji for young or earlier learners, sometimes for poetic affect as decided by the writer (think of it like bold or underlined or a different font)

3. In handwriting, uncommon or complex kanji are relatively difficult to write and so naturally the more casual the document, the more these words are written in kana rather than kanji.

   The same is not literally true of typed words — it’s still just a couple extra taps of the space bar to convert something like 故郷, but the sense of it still remains, so for a ‘lighter’ tone, fewer kanji will be used.

   Similarly but from a slightly different angle, very kanji dense sentences can, for the reader, feel very ‘heavy’, not exactly ‘difficult’, but stiff and overwrought. For this reason, words that are easily understood in kana (like ふるさと) will be left in kana, and words that are ambiguous like こうかい or けんとう will be converted to kanji, avoiding confusion while at the same time ‘lightening’ the sentence.

   This depends on context, of course. The more serious or academic a work, the more kanji it will use, and also certain pockets of the internet love their kanji. Discussions among authors and would-be authors can get a little crazy with writing as much as possible in kanji, with　良い、此等、何時、等々. Unsuprisingly, people who want to make their career all about words are more likely to be exceedingly fond of kanji. Some web novels also do this, although that usually gets cleaned up to a more normal writing style before publication if they are adapted into light novels.

4. For this word specifically it’s a native Japanese word with a lot of sentimental significance so hiragana makes some sense.

5. Readability. It is difficult to read a sentence full of ひらがな(Hiragana).

   A1: わたしはきょうこーひーをのみます。(I drink coffee today.)

   A1 can convey the meaning, but it is difficult to decode each word because modern Japanese don’t use spaces.

   A2: 私は今日コーヒーを飲みます。(I drink coffee today.)

   A2 conveys the same meaning as A1. However, A2 is more readable than A1 because it uses カタカナ(かたかな) and 漢字(かんじ). By using カタカナ and 漢字, natives clearly see where the boundaries of words are.

   Modern Japanese doesn’t have a strict word order in a sentence.

   A3: こーひーをきょうわたしはのみます。(I drink coffee today.)

   Again, A3 conveys exactly the same meaning as A1. The only difference is the order of the words. However, A3 is less readable to me because it takes me a moment to figure out where the boundaries of each word are.

   A4: コーヒーを今日私は飲みます。(I drink coffee today.)

   A4 is just another version of A3 with the addition of カタカナ and 漢字. From a native’s point of view, A4 is much easier to read than A3.

   If your native language is Chinese or English, the sentence has a strict word order. Japanese (and Korean, too) has a flexible word order. So sometimes it is difficult to find the boundaries of each word.

   Japanese use カタカナ and 漢字 to make sentences easy to read.

   Reference: Data of primer words in Japanese

   I made this for foreign students (who chose Japanese as a second language) because I thought it useful to show 漢字(かんじ) and 平仮名(ひらがな) side by side when they are in beginner to intermediate level.

   JaToEn Data 日本語入門 Primer to Japanese Language

   [https://tokyo-sensei.com/article/ja-dc/ja-dc-wd/ja-dc-wd101-Primer/](https://tokyo-sensei.com/article/ja-dc/ja-dc-wd/ja-dc-wd101-Primer/)

   JaToZht 數據 日語日文入門 基本用語

   [https://tokyo-sensei.com/article/Ja-Zht-dc/Ja-Zht-dc-wr/Ja-Zht-dc-wr-101-primer/](https://tokyo-sensei.com/article/Ja-Zht-dc/Ja-Zht-dc-wr/Ja-Zht-dc-wr-101-primer/)

   日语日文入门 基本用语

   [https://tokyo-sensei.com/article/Ja-Zhs-dc/Ja-Zhs-dc-wr/Ja-Zhs-dc-wr-101-Primer/](https://tokyo-sensei.com/article/Ja-Zhs-dc/Ja-Zhs-dc-wr/Ja-Zhs-dc-wr-101-Primer/)

6. 故郷 can be read as こきょう or ふるさと, and they mean the same. When you write it in hiragana you intentionally or unintentionally make it clear which one you want to use. Also, ふるさと is a native Japanese word and what it connotes matches what
   hiragana represents, less formal and close.

   However, sometimes there is no rhyme or reason. タバコ、たばこ、煙草

7. Another simple explanation is just author’s preference and stylization. Especially for signage, ease of immediate readability can be important.