It's ya boi, I'm back like you're Mom's cancer, motherfucker. With all the information I've posted so far, you should already be making small sentences, maybe even longer sentences if you got the te form and some grammar rules down. If you're just now starting with the Hiragana and Katakana charts, I don't expect you to be there yet, of course. If you are there, congratulations, you're gonna get all the cute, tight little Jap manko when you go to Japan.
Just don't go lusting after those cute little school girls, you sick fuck.
BEGINNER'S KANJI
We're going to go over some of the first kanji the average Japanese students learns in 1st grade.
一・二・三・四・五・六・七・八・九・十
Numbers 1-10 respectively. That's いち、に、さん、し、ご、ろく、しち、はち、きゅう、and じゅう
Now I need to explain how even this can get hard, mainly with the numbers 3, 4, 7, and 9. You read them as above, but a lot of times, those numbers are read completely differently in certain situations, like when you're talking about time. 3 is the easiest as it's actually mostly pronounced さん even when compounded with other kanji. The only time I've seen the kanji for 3 read differently is in names, such as 三原, where it's read as み. (Other kanji is はら meaning fields).
Four gets weird. If you write something like 四百 or 四千, 四 is read as よん and not し. In words like 四日, meaning the 4th (of the given month), it's read as よ (and by extension, in that kanji, 日 is read as か. よっか. When you're saying 'It's four o'clock', you read 四 as よ, and you'd say 四時. And yet, when you're referencing the four seasons of the year, you say 四季, where 四 is just read as し. You'll probably just have to learn this on a case by case basis. I'm not sure if there's a rule or pattern in play here. Perhaps the difference is when 四 is being used to describe the fourth of something, it's read as よ or よん, and when it's describing four OF something, it's read as し. That's the only pattern I can come up with here.
7 is also sort of tricky, but not as much as four. There's really one other reading you need to know. It's normally read as しち、but sometimes read as なな. If you were to say something like 七時, it's just read as しち. If you were to say 七不思議 (seven wonders/mysteries), it's read as なな. Again, I think the difference here is the distinction there being a seventh something and seven of something.
Nine is just slightly tricky. きゅう is the regular reading, with its alternate being く. Not much different. However, my previous distinctions don't seem to apply with nine. If you say something like 九生 (nine lives), it's read as きゅう. Say something like 九分 (nine parts/percent), it's read as く. So take that on a case by case basis too.
Moving on.
水・火・木・天・川・石・草・雨
みず、ひ、もく、あまつ、かわ、いし、くさ、あめ
Water, fire, wood, heavens (sky, but also heavenly or imperial, [imperial because both Chinese and Japanese emperors were considered divine figures]), river, jewel, grass, and rain.
These are all sort of natural features of the world or natural elements. You probably already know three of them if you know the kanji for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. You've probably also seen Kusa if you've seen the kanji for Kusanagi, the legendary grass-cutter sword in Japanese mythology. 草薙
Final round
休・月・耳・手・人・中・本
やす、つき、みみ、て、ひと、なか、本
Rest(take a day off), Moon, Ear, Hand, Person/Man, Center/Middle, Book/Origin
The kanji for moon can also mean month, however. So if you ever see 二月, it means the second month, February, or two months. In that case, it's read as がつ, but most of the time when you're using it to refer to months or as Monday, it's read as げつ. That's not to say those reading have nothing to do with the first meaning, Moon. 月食, read as げっしょく, means Lunar Eclipse. Most of the time it follows that trend, but don't assume it's an absolute. People will think you mean the moon if you say つき and Monday or a month if you say げつ though.
Remember, the full list of 1st grade kanji is here, along with the other grade levels
japaneseverbconjugator.com/KanjiBrowser.asp?txtSearch=1&criteria=Grade
Next time, we'll go over compound kanji that use some of these beginner kanji as entire first kanji or as radicals. While I'm at it, I may as well teach you what the hell radicals are when the time comes.
I shall return, just like your mother's cancer.
