keyword and enter it in the table at the back of the book. After that, write your sentence to remember the on-yomi and kun-yomi readings in the box below.
Less Common Pronunciations
Less common ON reading: none
Less Common kun reading: none
This is a good place to highlight another important aspect of Japanese: the difference between intransitive (intr) and transitive (tr) verbs. Basically, an intransitive verb does not require an object, whereas a transitive verb does. This can be more easily understood by comparing the first two examples given below; a person or thing “goes around” on their own (intransitive), but must have an object to “send around” (transitive). As many Japanese verbs come in such intransitive/ transitive pairs (the same kanji accompanied by different hiragana attached to the end), it is worth noticing how certain endings often indicate the type of verb; for “-ru/-su” pairs such as in the example here, the -su verb will always be the transitive.
| COMMON WORDS AND COMPOUNDS | ||
| 回る (intr) | to go around | mawa.ru まわ.る |
| 回す (tr) | to send around | mawa.su まわ.す |
| 一回 | one + rotate = one time | IK.KAI イッ.カイ |
| 二回 | two + rotate = twice | NI.KAI ニ.カイ |
| 引き 回す | pull + rotate = to pull around | hi.ki mawa.su ひ.きまわ.す |
| 言い 回し | say + rotate = (turn of) expression | i.i mawa.shi い.いまわ.し |
| SAMPLE SENTENCE: | |||||
| 私 | は | 二回 | カナダ | へ | 行きました。 |
| watashi | wa | NI·KAI | Canada | e | i·kimashita. |
| I | twice | Canada | went. | ||
| = I went to Canada twice. |
COMPONENT #10
We’ll be using this component to mean anything to do with the world of ballet.
KANJI #10
| 四 | FOUR |
Meaning
Four/Quad-, etc. Recall what was noted in Entry 9 regarding the proper stroke order for such characters: the inner part is written after the first two strokes of the prison walls, and enclosed by the final line at the bottom.
Remembering this kanji
Look, I’m not able to say for certain why they threw the ballet dancer into prison, but I do know one thing: they didn’t break him. How could I tell? Well, every afternoon during our exercise period, while the rest of us inmates were either pumping iron or sharpening our shivs, there he’d be, dancing to the FOUR corners of the prison walls. We all respected him for it, I suppose; not a single con in those FOUR corners ever laughed at his tights.
Common Pronunciations
Common ON reading: SHI (シ)
Common kun reading: yon (よん); yo (よ)
Do not choose the word “SHE” for your on-yomi, as we will be needing it far more for kun-yomi, and a word less abstract (try to think of things, places or people) will always be more memorable and make your sentences easier to create. As you can see from the examples below, this character has a tendency to appear in compounds having a mix of kun-yomi and on-yomi; this makes it a little trickier than the other kanji for numbers.
kun-yomi suggestions: “try only”; “yodel”
Create your on-yomi keyword and enter it in the table at the back of the book. After that, write your sentence to remember the on-yomi and kun-yumi readings in the box below.
Less Common Pronunciations
Less common ON reading: none
Less Common kun reading: yo- (よっ)
This reading is like the Less common kun-yomi for “three” in that it appears in only two words: 四日 [yok·ka (よっ.か)] “the fourth day of the month”, and 四つ [yot·tsu (よっ.つ)] the general counter for “four”. These words are best memorized as is.
| COMMON WORDS AND COMPOUNDS | ||
| 四 | four | SHI シ |
| 四人 | four + person = four people | yo.NIN よ.ニン |
| 四月 | four + moon (month) = April | SHI.GATSU シ.ガツ |
| 四時 | four + time four o’clock | yo.JI ょ.ジ |
| 四十 | four + ten = forty | yon.JŪ よん.ジュウ |
| 四百 | four + hundred = four hundred | yon.HYAKU よん.ヒャク |
| SAMPLE SENTENCE: | |||||
| 四月 | に | は | 雨 | が | 多い。 |
| SHI·GATSU | ni | wa | ame | ga | ō·i. |
| April | rain | many. | |||
|
= There’s a lot of
|
