Why are there kanjis written into hirakana? Hallo, I'm lerning Japanese by myself. And I'm always confused about when should I use kanji and when hirakana. Sometimes it is written as わたしは上海から来ました。 But

Yvonne

Why are there kanjis written into hirakana? Hallo, I'm lerning Japanese by myself. And I'm always confused about when should I use kanji and when hirakana. Sometimes it is written as わたしは上海から来ました。 But sometimes it is written as 私は上海から来ました。 Even in my japanese book(みんなの日本語) there are these two different ways to write "I". I thought that I should always write in kanji when there is kanji for the word. But now it seems wrong. Is there a grammatical rule to talk about this? ありがとう！

May 10, 2011 10:41 PM

Answers · 11

Hello. (^_^) I think you can use both of them as you like. It's depends on you or the situation. I usually use 私. I can see わたし in stories for children or in poems or in posters on walls or in my friends' mails and letters. I feel 漢字(= polite or casual, smart), ひらがな(= casual, friendly) for example, I don't like to study. = 私は勉強するのが好きではありません。or 私、勉強が好きじゃない。 = わたし、勉強すきじゃなーい！ Sorry, I wish I could tell you well. (^_^;)

May 11, 2011

There is no rule. You'll learn as you go along which words are mostly written in hiragana, and which in kanji. Don't worry about it now. For the time being just accept that sometimes both are possible.

May 11, 2011

It is called as furigana. It is written to make it easy for those who are not aware of kanji or are foreigners. Kids also able to read furigana (i.e. kanji written in hiragana). Source - http://codesynapse.net/japanese/what-is-furigana-and-where-it-is-used/

May 14, 2011

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