Page 22 - Japanese Character Writing for Dummies

Verbs:

食べる taberu (to eat)
話します hanashimasu (to speak)
見ません mimasen (to not see) negative form

Adjectives:

高い takai (high)
大きくない ōkikunai (not big) negative form

These grammatical endings written in hiragana are explained in Japanese For Dummies, 3rd Edition,
if you would like to investigate more.

Kanji compounds

Words that contain multiple kanji are called “kanji compounds.” In a kanji compound, we typically
apply on’yomi to each kanji. For example, 外国 gai-koku (foreign country) has two kanji to make up
the word in which on’yomi is employed. However, there are kanji compounds that consist of just
kun’yomi or a mixture of on’yomi and kun’yomi. Here are some examples:

on’yomi + on’yomi 音楽 on-gaku (music)
kun’yomi + kun’yomi 花見 hana-mi (flower viewing)
on’yomi + kun’yomi 毎年 mai-toshi (every year)
kun’yomi + on’yomi 夕飯 yū-han (supper, dinner)

Sound shifts in kanji compounds

Some compound words go through sound shifts within the compound. There are kanji compounds
in which the initial unvoiced syllable of the non-initial kanji becomes voiced (indicated by the
diacritical mark with two dots). For example, 百 hyaku (hundred) is pronounced byaku after 三
san (three), so 三百 is read san-byaku; the h becomes b (voiced) in the compound. There are also
compound words in which small tsu takes over some sounds. For example, 回 kai is a counter for
frequency, such as once, twice, and so on. After adding 一ichi (one) to it, 一回 is pronounced いっかい
ikkai. Although these are not uncommon phonological behaviors, there are no clear rules for these
sound shifts. But if you remember each one when you encounter a sound shift, it won’t be so hard!
Here are some more examples.

Unvoiced → voiced
花 hana (flower) + 火 hi (fire) → 花火 hana-bi (fireworks)
手 te (hand) + 紙 kami (paper) → 手紙 te-gami (letter)

16 Japanese Character Writing For Dummies