This tool annotates Japanese text with both on’yomi (音読み, the Chinese-derived reading) and kun’yomi (訓読み, the native Japanese reading) for each kanji it recognises, using a built-in table of common JLPT characters. Many kanji carry both reading types, and knowing which applies is one of the hardest parts of learning Japanese — this gives you both at a glance, with a short meaning hint.
How it works
The tool walks your text and, for each kanji in the bundled table, shows:
- On’yomi in katakana — the reading used mostly in compound words.
- Kun’yomi in hiragana — the reading used when the kanji stands alone or has okurigana.
- A short English gloss to help confirm the character.
Kana, Latin letters, and punctuation are skipped. A handy rule of thumb: on’yomi tends to surface inside jukugo (multi-kanji compounds) such as 学校 → gakkō, while kun’yomi appears when the kanji is solo or paired with hiragana endings, such as 学ぶ → manabu.
Example and notes
Paste 生 and you will see both kun’yomi (い・きる, う・まれる, なま) and on’yomi (セイ, ショウ) — a famously many-reading kanji. Because the table only reports stored readings, rarer kanji and name readings may show as “not found”; that is deliberate so you never get a fabricated reading. Use the meaning hint to disambiguate which reading fits the word you are reading.