not sure to best phrase the question, but take お休み for example, why does it use 休 in the middle to replace や? i dont know why the mix of them is used. this might be a stupid question, but I haven’t learned it yet haha.
They use kanji because (provided you know kanji) it makes it very clear and easy to read the sentence.
Japanese has a lot homonyms and honestly reading a pure hiragana sentence is not very easy when compared to one that uses kanji
Japanese tends to use kanji for the stem of the word and the kana to indicate things like grammatical function. As you say, it is お休み, but you would also say 休む or 休みたい. The kana/kanji combination let’s you see where words start and end and shows you what is happening to words language-wise.
Since there’s not spaces in written Japanese, the kanji help to break up the sentences so you can see where words begin and end. It also makes reading the は particle in particular a lot less confusing and having to guess if it’s wa/ha. Readingasentencethatisjustwritteninhiraganaorkatakanafeelsabitlikereadinganenglishsentencewithnospaces
I remember being really confused by this too but it does start to make sense the more Japanese you’re exposed to. Reading kanji is so much easier than reading strings of kana as there are a lot of words that would be written the same. Kana though, is still required to modify the kanji for grammatical reasons. For example the following use the kanji 行 (iku, meaning “to go”). Kana can be used to make it ikimashita 行きました (i went), ikimasu 行きます (i’m going) or ikimashou 行きましょう(let’s go) etc.
Nothing is replacing the characters, it’s not how it works, one does not write in kana and then swap out some with kanji
The word is 休み which is the noun equivalent of the verb 休む (many but not all noun equivalents are the masu stem forms of verbs)
Since it’s pronounced やすみ one can also write out the pronunciation やすみ
お and ご depending on the word are polite prefixes that are sometimes applied
English is no different. HELLO and hello are the same word despite having different characters
One reason to use the kanji version of writing things is the vast number of homophones in Japanese
かえる can be to go home, to change, or frog
But 帰る and 変える and 蛙 are easier to parse visually
Also since there are no word boundaries in Japanese, having kanji up front in a lot of words helps break up sentences. Sentences of 100% kana are a nightmare to read, especially for new learners, ironically
To add to other comments, also keep in mind that the Japanese adopted *kanji* from Chinese; but whereas Chinese is monosyllabic, Japanese is polysyllabic, so it’s not a natural fit. Japanese therefore typically uses kanji to communicate the root concept of verbs in particular, supplemented by *kana* to convey tense or other grammar attributes. Japanese *kunyomi* readings of kanji also arose quickly because of the fundamental mono/poly difference between Chinese and Japanese.
Long story short, *kanji* don’t (usually) cover the conjugated segments of a verb.
You got a verb, you got a combination of *kanji* and *hiragana*. In the case of お休み, the *kanji* covers the verb base (with the main meaning) and the ending is conjugated into a noun-ish form that’s used with formal statements, among other things.
8 comments
They use kanji because (provided you know kanji) it makes it very clear and easy to read the sentence.
Japanese has a lot homonyms and honestly reading a pure hiragana sentence is not very easy when compared to one that uses kanji
Japanese tends to use kanji for the stem of the word and the kana to indicate things like grammatical function. As you say, it is お休み, but you would also say 休む or 休みたい. The kana/kanji combination let’s you see where words start and end and shows you what is happening to words language-wise.
Since there’s not spaces in written Japanese, the kanji help to break up the sentences so you can see where words begin and end. It also makes reading the は particle in particular a lot less confusing and having to guess if it’s wa/ha. Readingasentencethatisjustwritteninhiraganaorkatakanafeelsabitlikereadinganenglishsentencewithnospaces
I remember being really confused by this too but it does start to make sense the more Japanese you’re exposed to. Reading kanji is so much easier than reading strings of kana as there are a lot of words that would be written the same. Kana though, is still required to modify the kanji for grammatical reasons. For example the following use the kanji 行 (iku, meaning “to go”). Kana can be used to make it ikimashita 行きました (i went), ikimasu 行きます (i’m going) or ikimashou 行きましょう(let’s go) etc.
Nothing is replacing the characters, it’s not how it works, one does not write in kana and then swap out some with kanji
The word is 休み which is the noun equivalent of the verb 休む (many but not all noun equivalents are the masu stem forms of verbs)
Since it’s pronounced やすみ one can also write out the pronunciation やすみ
お and ご depending on the word are polite prefixes that are sometimes applied
English is no different. HELLO and hello are the same word despite having different characters
One reason to use the kanji version of writing things is the vast number of homophones in Japanese
かえる can be to go home, to change, or frog
But 帰る and 変える and 蛙 are easier to parse visually
Also since there are no word boundaries in Japanese, having kanji up front in a lot of words helps break up sentences. Sentences of 100% kana are a nightmare to read, especially for new learners, ironically
To add to other comments, also keep in mind that the Japanese adopted *kanji* from Chinese; but whereas Chinese is monosyllabic, Japanese is polysyllabic, so it’s not a natural fit. Japanese therefore typically uses kanji to communicate the root concept of verbs in particular, supplemented by *kana* to convey tense or other grammar attributes. Japanese *kunyomi* readings of kanji also arose quickly because of the fundamental mono/poly difference between Chinese and Japanese.
This video gives a good introduction to the Japanese writing system. [https://youtu.be/r7a8OjvViwE?si=sWMFiWQ6vl_cEKAD](https://youtu.be/r7a8OjvViwE?si=sWMFiWQ6vl_cEKAD)
Long story short, *kanji* don’t (usually) cover the conjugated segments of a verb.
You got a verb, you got a combination of *kanji* and *hiragana*. In the case of お休み, the *kanji* covers the verb base (with the main meaning) and the ending is conjugated into a noun-ish form that’s used with formal statements, among other things.