Learning kanji On-yomi through their phonetic components – Anki deck

As mysterious as Japanese kanji readings can get, there is actually some (and I really mean only “some”!) level of consistency in kanji on-yomi readings across similar looking kanji.

This applies to about 60% of the Jouyou kanji and are known as 形声 (けいせい)(keisei) characters. For example, the on-yomi of the kanji 吾 is ご(go)、and the on-yomi of the kanji 語 is also ご(go).

There are around 100 of these components that indicate an on-yomi reading.

Another example would be “粦” which isn’t a *really* kanji in itself, but rather a component used in other kanji. Its on-yomi is りん(rin). And with this knowledge you’ll also have an idea of what all these other, rather frightening looking kanji’s on-yomi are: 隣、燐、鱗、麟. That’s right they are all りん(rin)!

I made an Anki deck to help learn these kanji phonetic components.

While there are many kanji that are not 形声 (けいせい)(keisei) characters, a good chunk of them are. So, working on the deck can make remembering how to read words easier.

You can find the Anki deck at my site, there’s a download link after the screenshots of the deck.

[Link to the deck page](https://learnjapanese.moe/kanjiphonetics/)

There are a few pitfalls of this that you should keep in mind when doing the deck.

For some components, there are exceptions to the rule and other on-yomi readings that it may also carry. For every component in the deck, a “confidence” rating, and exceptions are shown. This “confidence” rating is how sure you can be that a kanji with that component has that on-yomi.

Kanji readings do not end at on-yomi, neither do they end at just learning how they are read. In order to build kanji reading proficiency, there are other factors involved such as reading words that those kanji are used in.

Nevertheless, I think this deck will be useful to your Japanese learning journey. I had fun making the deck and even as someone that can already read Japanese, I got better at remembering kanji readings because there were components I didn’t know shared an on-yomi before! 目から鱗！