Is Jisho’s “usually written using kana alone” system reliable?

12 comments

1. jisho is decently reliable for knowing what to expect in that regard, but [https://jpdb.io/](https://jpdb.io/) i believe has percentages for how often a word appears in their catalog in various kana and kanji forms. just search your word and hit “more details.” though, most of jpdb’s database is based in manga, anime, novels, and video games but i imagine the percentages are pretty accurate for overall usage.

2. In my experience, Jisho has been pretty good with that note. Especially helpful when I learned that the word 舐める (to lick) is the same as なめる (to look down on someone). They technically share the same kanji, but when its kana alone, its usually the latter. I would learn all words with kanji, then when you practice using native material, you’ll learn which words are actually written with kana alone.

3. “usually” doesn’t mean always

   look for more sentence examples to look for better statistics or patterns, i.e. weblio

4. i find it so

   i always just think that we ain’t fooling anyone from Japan so just do your best to get by and you will learn along the way

   i watch Tokini Andy and he is acing N1 level tests and married to a Japanese person — he learns new things all the time just from living life

   also, keep in mind not everyone even in Japan is some albert einstein. you may have surpassed their reading level just by studying for fun

5. 綺麗

   This is probably a case where the kanji form became more common due to the ease of digital input, but the kana form is far more common in handwriting.

6. I think Jisho’s right here. You’ll be both with and without kanji depending on the context. I feel like I usually see 綺麗 in printed materia (especially in stuff that’s more formal or takes itself more seriously) and きれい in text messages, social media, etc. Personally when I see 綺麗 it feel more formal or erudite while きれい feel more casual and everyday

   I feel like when Jisho says “usually written without kanji” it’s for stuff where “using kanji with this word is actively odd and unnatural”

7. It definitely is, but for 綺麗(きれい) specifically, even pokemon, a game made for children, uses the kanji version. So you should likely just learn the kanji versions just in case.

8. If you dont mind trying another dictionary Kanshudo has a % frequency on the readings of any given word, along with the “often written in kana” note. In your example they have:

   This word is encountered in 5 forms: きれい (this, 50%), 綺麗 (30%), キレイ (20%), 暉麗 (rare), 奇麗 (rare).

   might be what you are looking for.

9. Honestly the more you consume which ever form of media. It won’t matter. “Oh it’s written in kanji here “ “oh it’s written in kana here” you’ll just get used to it. You’ll just know it by then. So many times while living in japan I’ve had the moment “oh hey I know that but it’s not in kanji” or the opposite “it’s not in kana”. This is from my experience with signs and TV subtitles/CM.

10. The dictionary that Jisho uses is a dictionary made entirely by volunteers most of them who are not native speakers. While it’s a great resource when you are just getting started nothing about it is reliable.

    Edit: Keep downvoting but everyone I know who uses this app to study has horrible Japanese. If you desire fluency it makes sense to use native resources. There are two very good JE/EJ dictionaries updated, reviwed and published by Japanese companies.

    Here’s an actual example of how bad jisho is and how using a good dictionary helps:
    https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/1437ph4/comment/jn8is9j/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

11. **TL;DR** To answer your question more directly, I believe that the “usually written using kana alone” notation is reliable enough that you can make your own context sensitive adjustments provided you understand the language well enough. If you don’t, it doesn’t matter yet, and you can just go with whatever Jisho lists 🙂

    ​

    The “usually written using kana alone” is not a [jisho.org](https://jisho.org) feature per se, but a part of JMDict, which is the internal Japanese dictionary used by the website. As such, it is not relevant if the “system” be *reliable* in the context of jisho as much as it is in the context of JMDict.

    If you have any doubts about the vaildity or correctness of JMDict, you can *probably* get in touch with the maintainer and submit a change request of some sort. However, I believe it would be prudent to assume you have outright identified a mistake, unless your level of Japanese understanding is reasonably high.

    That being said, there may be some missing notations, and きれい is a good example in my opinion. If you notice, some of the meanings of きれい actually has this notation on them, just not the “beautiful/pretty” definition, which then proceeds to use the kana version in the subsequent example.

    ​

    **wwwjdic**: The original website created by the author of JMDict among others, serve to exemplify multiple use-cases for the dictionary. You may be able to discern the age of this dictionary from the website design: [http://nihongo.monash.edu/cgi-bin/wwwjdic?1C](http://nihongo.monash.edu/cgi-bin/wwwjdic?1C)

    **jdic project**: More documentation regarding the usage, origin and maintenance of the entire jdic project: [https://www.edrdg.org/wiki/index.php/JMdict-EDICT_Dictionary_Project](https://www.edrdg.org/wiki/index.php/JMdict-EDICT_Dictionary_Project)

12. I think the “usually written using kana” is more referring to handwriting. I learned that in games for example almost everything is full Kanji no matter if you’d usually write it with Kana or not. They usually only skip really obscure Kanjis. I’d recommend learning with Kanji but making a memo, that it’s usually written in Kana