I’m using the All in One Kanji deck to learn writing and the Core 2k deck on Anki to learn vocabulary and they push me a lot of words that have the same pronunciation and same meaning but completely different kanji.
For example I can’t find information on what the difference is between 集める and 鍾める which supposedly both mean collect, and the difference between 旗 and 幡 which supposedly both mean flag. I looked up translators online and it looks like the Core 2k deck has the actual commonly-used word but when I look in a kanji dictionary, All in One kanji isn’t feeding me a fake word either. I feel like the order got mixed up when I downloaded it though because I’ve been learning a lot of rare kanji from All in One.
I’m sure more of these will pop up so I would appreciate it if someone could recommend a resource that explains the difference and which one is more commonly used.
4 comments
Kanjis are chinese characters which are used to transcribe Japanese words, but the Japanese language predates kanjis and kanjis were initially made to transcribe Chinese. So usually when a Japanese word has more than one kanji that represents it, it is because this words translates differently in Chinese depending on context, and those Chinese words have different writings
集める is the common one, I’ve never even seen that other character before. 旗 is the more general term for flags of all types, 幡 is more like a long vertical banner. Why don’t you juat use a dictionary or look up the words, the most common or generally used characters are the ones you will see first. Or do an internet search of the characters and compare the number of hits.
https://joyokanji.info/iji.html
You can find a good list up here. Note that it’s in Japanese, so your ability to use it will likely vary and will increase with time as you learn more.
As much as I know, they do sometime hold a meaning in being different kanji’s at different times even though the meaning they potray should be same on paper.
Like for the kanji “Think (Verb)”.
Note: **both kanji represent the same verb**.
思う is usually used in sentences
想う is used when we want to add a slight heart-felt emotion to the verb (like, to think of someone)
and yada yada yada.