Kanji Units
Lesson 11 of 12
Kanji Unit 11 — reading a street
about 9 minutes
After this lesson you can
- Read the shopfronts and station signs on an ordinary street.
- Work out a two-character word from the two characters in it.
Words this lesson teaches
- 学
- study, learning
- 校
- school
- 国
- country
- 語
- language, word
- 会
- meet; a gathering
- 社
- company; shrine
- 店
- shop
- 駅
- station
- 車
- car, vehicle
- 電
- electricity
What it explains
Two characters make a word, and the reading changes
山 alone is やま. In a compound it is usually さん — 富士山 is ふじさん. The rule of thumb is that a character alone takes its native Japanese reading and a character in a compound takes its borrowed Chinese one, which is why 見る is みる but 見学 is けんがく. It is a tendency rather than a law, and it is right often enough to be worth leaning on.
屋 and 店 both mean shop, and they are not interchangeable
N5 taught いんさつや and ぶんぼうぐや — the printer's, the stationer's. Written out they are 印刷屋 and 文房具屋, with 屋 for a small trade shop, while 書店 uses 店 for a bookshop. Which one a business takes is history and habit rather than rule, so read them as whole words. This is the first place in the track where the honest answer is that you memorise it.