I’ve been learning basic Japanese for 3 months for a trip there next spring. I’m using a few different online and offline sources, but I must admit the ease of routine means I use DuoLingo most regularly. I understand that it may not be the greatest resource but being unable to escape the demands of the owl is useful for me.
Today it was teaching me the word for “your father,” which it gave as お父さん.
Despite previously having learned 父 for “my father” the word alarmed me a bit because it had been my understanding that kanji either covered entire words or were placed at the start of words to differentiate between them in writing (much as we would use spaces). It was the first time I had seen one referenced in the middle. On the other hand, I’m well aware that, much like my old chemistry teacher, DuoLingo fudges a lot of the writing so that you are introduced to one concept at a time.
What’s the deal here? Is it common for kanji to rock up in the centre of words?