ON Vs. Kun Reading

At first Japanese was a spoken language, and it wasn't until China got to Japan, that Japanese didn't start writing... However, guess what!! The phonology of one language and the other was soooo different, that Japanese had to force the sounds into the Chinese characters. They also ended up coming up with the two alphabets that we know as Hiragana and Katakana.

So to summarize:

ON reading - Original Chinese reading of the character

kun reading - Japanese reading of the character.

General Rule!! (Many exceptions)

For a kanji next to another kanji = use ON reading

For a kanji alone or next to hiragana = use kun reading

For a more detailed explanation, watch my YouTube video below!