Another Tip to Learning to Read and Pronounce Kanji Faster

Here’s a small reading tip that I actually learned fairly recently, but it makes a lot of sense. It’s called rendaku.

𝗘𝘅.𝟭
空 (そら): sky
青い空 (あおぞら): blue sky
秋空 (あきぞら): autumn sky
The そ -> ぞ sound when the (空) kanji is placed second.

𝗘𝘅.𝟮
島 (しま): island
小島(こじま): small island
中島 (なかじま): Nakajima last name, island in a pond or river
The し -> じ sound when (島) kanji is second.

𝗘𝘅.𝟯
葉 (は): leaf
落ち葉 (おちば): fallen leaf
言葉 (ことば): words
The は -> ば sound when (葉) kanji is second.

This “sound flip” is seen everywhere, so it’s a good one to remember. The easy part is usually if the kanji is at the BEGINNING, the sound with be without the (“) quotation-like marks, but if it’s at the MIDDLE / END then it will be with the (“).
***Note: exceptions will occur

It makes a lot of sense if you look at a hiragana syllabary chart or you learned hiragana in that order.

The Use of 々

人々 (ひとびと): people
時々 (ときどき): sometimes
所々 (ところどころ): here and there

In all 3, the second half is essentially a repeat of the first, but with the opposing syllabary using the (“) marks. These can be written in kanji or hiragana.

ひ -> び
と -> ど

If you didn’t already notice this, I hope you were able to learn something new! Let me know your thoughts in the comments!