So, I was doing genki (I’m near the beginning) and it used hiragana instead of the Kanji in just one part of the sentence. Can someone please clarify if this is to help with the lesson or if this is supposed to be how its written?
**私はあした京都に行きます。**
As you can see, あした is written in hiragana, but is this to help me read it or is that how its supposed to be written? Thank you.
4 comments
Yes, sometimes stuff can be written in hiragana. There’s another thread with a similar topic already on [the front page](https://old.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/10b1jle/why_is_the_title_of_bocchi_the_rock_written_in/). Also for these kinds of questions please use the daily question thread stickied at the top of the subreddit.
Material for learners or children will replace words normally written in kanji with hiragana equivalents if they think the reader will not know the word, although 明日・あした is one where you see both fairly commonly, depending on the situation.
In this case it is not an issue of right or wrong – it’s more a stylistic thing.
This happens frequently and usually happens for different reasons. Sometimes they want to highlight something, or sometimes the kanji have gone out of use, or sometimes it’s due to the difficulty level of the reading or the proficiency level of the reader they are targeting and the list goes on and on. Sometimes there’s absolutely no reason and the author just felt like it in a specific instance. Sometimes it denotes extreme familiarity between the speakers. They’ll even mix in katakana with hiragana and even kanji (seemingly arbitrarily) for what seems like no specific reason, but of course there is a reason that you just have to catch on to.
As you get better and better you’re going to start wanting to see kanji as often as possible, they are more specific than just seeing random hiragana’s together.
I believe that in this specific example, as it is near the beginning of the textbook, this may have been written that way for the beginner learner. Sorry for going on and on lol but as you’re starting your adventure I just wanted to help prepare you for what lies ahead! It will be extremely fun as you gain proficiency, I promise! But it will take time and will definitely take work- this is not something you do passively!
Sorry for the wall of text!
Edited to add- I have read many full novels in Japanese so I certainly do have experience
Most of the time it is written with the Kanji, but I think it is in kana so you do not misread it as a beginner. Chunks of Kanji are intimidating at your point.