How to Remember Kanji with Sino-Vietnamese Readings and Radicals

Remembering kanji with Sino-Vietnamese readings, radicals and character breakdowns

Sino-Vietnamese readings are one of the strongest anchors for remembering kanji. Almost every kanji of Chinese origin has a Sino-Vietnamese reading, and it corresponds fairly regularly to the Japanese on'yomi (the Chinese-derived reading): 電話 is ĐIỆN THOẠI in Sino-Vietnamese and でんわ in Japanese; 学生 is HỌC SINH and がくせい. An effective method combines four habits: attach each character to its Sino-Vietnamese reading, learn a few patterns that link Sino-Vietnamese readings to on'yomi, split characters into a radical and components to build your own memory hook, and review at spaced intervals. One caveat: the Sino-Vietnamese reading is an anchor, not a translation, because some words share characters but not meaning.

This article walks through each step with real examples: why Sino-Vietnamese readings help, a table of correspondence patterns between Sino-Vietnamese readings and on'yomi with exceptions, words that are easy to misread, and seven kanji to try straight away: 休, 明, 森, 校, 時, 思, 語. Japanese readings were checked against KANJIDIC2 and Sino-Vietnamese readings against the Thiều Chửu dictionary on hvdic; the sources are listed at the end.

Why Sino-Vietnamese readings help you remember kanji

Vietnamese and Japanese both borrowed a great many words from Chinese, so many kanji compounds have a Sino-Vietnamese counterpart written with the same characters and carrying the same meaning. When you meet 電話 you are not learning a completely new word: 電 is ĐIỆN, 話 is THOẠI, and together they make điện thoại, telephone, exactly as in Japanese. 学生 is HỌC SINH, student. 図書館 is ĐỒ THƯ QUÁN, which sounds less familiar, but THƯ (book) and QUÁN (building, hall) are enough to guess library.

This is more than a feeling. A team led by Matsuda Makiko (2008) examined about 4,000 two-character Sino-Japanese words from the vocabulary list of the old JLPT framework and found that about half have a Sino-Vietnamese counterpart with the same meaning; among the higher-level words the figure rises to about 60%. Nagano Masumi (2017, Hiroshima University) likewise found that, for Vietnamese learners of Japanese, words whose Sino-Vietnamese reading sounds closer to the Japanese were recalled better in a memory experiment.

GoMe Nihongo is not affiliated with the Japan Foundation or JEES, the organisers of the JLPT. Any levels or word lists mentioned in this article are estimates for reference only.

Eight words you can guess through their Sino-Vietnamese reading

Even in this easy group there is a detail to watch: in Japanese, 学生 usually means a university student, while school pupils are normally called 生徒 (せいと). The Sino-Vietnamese reading gets you close to the meaning; the precise sense still comes from how Japanese speakers use the word.

Correspondence patterns between Sino-Vietnamese readings and on'yomi

Sino-Vietnamese readings and on'yomi both descend from Middle Chinese, and each then changed to fit its own sound system, so the two line up fairly regularly. Knowing a few of these patterns often lets you guess the on'yomi from the Sino-Vietnamese reading, or the other way round. They are tendencies, not laws: every pattern has exceptions, and many characters have two or three on'yomi from different waves of borrowing (see the section after the table). Each line below gives the Sino-Vietnamese reading in capitals and the on'yomi in katakana.

Finals (the end of the syllable)

-anh, -inh → -ei (エイ): 明 MINH → メイ, 英 ANH → エイ, 生 SINH → セイ, 名 DANH → メイ.

-ang, -ương, -ông, -ung → -ō or -ū (オウ, ョウ, ウウ): 方 PHƯƠNG → ホウ, 長 TRƯỜNG → チョウ, 東 ĐÔNG → トウ, 空 KHÔNG → クウ.

-n and -m → -n (ン): 新 TÂN → シン, 安 AN → アン; 心 TÂM → シン, 三 TAM → サン. Vietnamese still keeps -n and -m apart, while Japanese merged both into ン, so TÂN and TÂM are both read シン.

-c → -ku (ク), -ch → -ki (キ): 学 HỌC → ガク, 国 QUỐC → コク, 薬 DƯỢC → ヤク; 石 THẠCH → セキ, 駅 DỊCH → エキ, 歴 LỊCH → レキ.

-t → -tsu (ツ) or -chi (チ): 発 PHÁT → ハツ, 出 XUẤT → シュツ, 月 NGUYỆT → ゲツ; 日 NHẬT → ニチ, 一 NHẤT → イチ, 八 BÁT → ハチ.

-p → -ō or -ū, formerly -fu: 十 THẬP → ジュウ, 入 NHẬP → ニュウ, 法 PHÁP → ホウ, 業 NGHIỆP → ギョウ. Old kana spelling still shows the trace: 十 was once written じふ and 法 はふ. Before k, s, t or h this sound often becomes the small っ: 合宿 (がっしゅく, HỢP TÚC), 雑誌 (ざっし, TẠP CHÍ).

-ao, -âu, -iêu, -ưu → -ō or -ū (オウ, ョウ, ュウ): 高 CAO → コウ, 口 KHẨU → コウ, 校 HIỆU → コウ, 休 HƯU → キュウ.

-ai, -ôi → -ai (アイ): 海 HẢI → カイ, 来 LAI → ライ, 内 NỘI → ナイ.

Initial consonants

h, kh, c/k/qu, gi → k or g (the カ and ガ rows): 漢 HÁN → カン, 海 HẢI → カイ, 学 HỌC → ガク; 口 KHẨU → コウ; 国 QUỐC → コク; 間 GIAN → カン.

ng → g (the ガ row): 語 NGỮ → ゴ, 五 NGŨ → ゴ, 外 NGOẠI → ガイ, 牛 NGƯU → ギュウ.

th → t (the タ row), sometimes s, sh or j: 天 THIÊN → テン, 体 THỂ → タイ, 通 THÔNG → ツウ; 書 THƯ → ショ, 手 THỦ → シュ, 時 THỜI → ジ.

t → s or z (the サ and ザ rows): 三 TAM → サン, 心 TÂM → シン, 先 TIÊN → セン, 自 TỰ → ジ. This is the pair that trips people up most: Sino-Vietnamese T matches Japanese S, while TH is the one that usually matches T. Researchers such as Maspero, Nguyễn Tài Cẩn and Mineya Tōru explain that the Sino-Vietnamese T arose when the Middle Chinese consonants ts, dz, s and z merged into one.

đ, tr → t, d, ch or j: 東 ĐÔNG → トウ, 電 ĐIỆN → デン, 道 ĐẠO → ドウ; 中 TRUNG → チュウ, 知 TRI → チ, 場 TRƯỜNG → ジョウ.

ph, b → h (the ハ row), sometimes f or b: 方 PHƯƠNG → ホウ, 風 PHONG → フウ, 分 PHÂN → フン or ブン; 八 BÁT → ハチ, 北 BẮC → ホク, 半 BÁN → ハン.

v, m → b or m: 文 VĂN → ブン, モン; 物 VẬT → ブツ, モツ; 万 VẠN → マン, バン; 明 MINH → メイ; 木 MỘC → モク, ボク.

l → r (the ラ row): 力 LỰC → リョク, 理 LÝ → リ, 流 LƯU → リュウ.

d → y or a bare vowel (the ヤ and ア rows): 薬 DƯỢC → ヤク, 用 DỤNG → ヨウ, 遊 DU → ユウ, 駅 DỊCH → エキ.

nh → n or j (ニ, ジ): 日 NHẬT → ニチ, ジツ; 人 NHÂN → ニン, ジン; 二 NHỊ → ニ, ジ.

Exceptions and characters with several on'yomi

On'yomi did not enter Japanese all at once but in several waves. The Go-on (呉音) layer came earlier; the Kan-on (漢音) layer came later and followed the pronunciation of Tang-dynasty Chang'an; there are also Tō-on (唐音) readings and conventional readings (慣用音). So one character can have two or three on'yomi, and usually only one of them fits the table above.

明 MINH is read メイ (Kan-on, fitting -inh → -ei), but in 明日 (みょうにち, tomorrow, formal) it is ミョウ (Go-on). 生 SINH works the same way: セイ in 学生, ショウ in 一生 (いっしょう, a whole lifetime). 日 NHẬT has ニチ (Go-on) and ジツ (Kan-on); 万 VẠN has マン (Go-on) and バン (Kan-on).

Some characters break the pattern outright. By the -p rule 立 LẬP should be リュウ, and that reading does exist, but the common one is the conventional reading リツ, as in 国立 (こくりつ, national). 話 THOẠI is read ワ, which fits no initial-consonant pattern. 実 has two Sino-Vietnamese readings, THỰC and THẬT; its on'yomi ジツ matches THẬT (-t → -tsu), not THỰC. And characters created in Japan (kokuji) such as 働 (はたら-く, to work) have no original Sino-Vietnamese reading; dictionaries give ĐỘNG, borrowed from 動.

When Sino-Vietnamese readings mislead

Sharing characters does not guarantee sharing meaning. In some words Japanese has shifted away from the original sense, in others Vietnamese has, and in some the Sino-Vietnamese reading is just the sound of each character rather than a word in use. Another study by Matsuda Makiko (2012) found that people with no Japanese guessed the meaning of Sino-Japanese words from Sino-Vietnamese far less accurately than learners who had studied some Japanese: Sino-Vietnamese readings help alongside Japanese knowledge, not instead of it.

Eight words that share characters but not meaning

大丈夫 still means "a great man" in old texts and 結構 can still mean "structure", but in everyday conversation you will almost only meet "all right" and "quite, fine". 手紙 belongs to another group: words read with kun'yomi (native Japanese readings) such as 手紙, 明日 (あした) and 今日 (きょう). Here the characters carry only the meaning, the reading has nothing to do with on'yomi, and the table above does not apply.

A quick check: when you guess a word's meaning through its Sino-Vietnamese reading, put it into a Japanese sentence. If the result makes no sense, as when 毎晩図書館で勉強します comes out as "every evening I am reluctant at the library", look the word up in a Japanese dictionary before trusting the Sino-Vietnamese reading.

Radicals and components: remembering the shape

Sino-Vietnamese readings help with meaning and sound; the shape is easier to hold through radicals. The radical tells you which meaning group a character belongs to; the traditional system has 214 of them. 語 and 話 both have the radical 言 (speech), so both relate to talking; 校 and 森 have 木 (tree); 時 and 明 have 日 (sun).

Many characters also contain a component that hints at the reading. 校 and 交 are both read コウ, 時 and 寺 are both ジ, and 語 and 吾 are both ゴ (their Sino-Vietnamese readings NGỮ and NGÔ sound close too). Use these pairs as hooks for the reading; they are memory aids, not explanations of where the characters came from.

Try it with seven kanji

Each entry below follows the same order: meaning and Sino-Vietnamese reading, breakdown, readings (with the matching pattern where there is one), and common words.

休: HƯU, rest

The person radical 亻 plus 木 (tree): a person leaning against a tree is resting. Sino-Vietnamese reading HƯU. On reading キュウ, matching h → k and -ưu → -ū; kun reading やす-む. Common words: 休み (やすみ, day off), 夏休み (なつやすみ, summer holiday).

明: MINH, bright, clear

日 (sun) plus 月 (moon): when the sun and the moon shine together it is bright. Sino-Vietnamese reading MINH. On readings メイ (matching -inh → -ei) and ミョウ; kun reading あか-るい. Common words: 説明 (せつめい, explanation; Sino-Vietnamese thuyết minh), 明日 (あした, tomorrow).

森: SÂM, forest

Three 木 stacked together: one tree is 木, two trees are 林 (grove), three trees are a dense forest. Sino-Vietnamese reading SÂM. On reading シン (-m → ン); kun reading もり. Common word: 森林 (しんりん, forest; Sino-Vietnamese sâm lâm).

校: HIỆU, school

木 on the left, 交 on the right. Sino-Vietnamese reading HIỆU. On reading コウ, matching h → k and -iêu → -ō; 交 is also read コウ, which anchors the reading. Common words: 学校 (がっこう, school; Sino-Vietnamese học hiệu), 校長 (こうちょう, head teacher; Sino-Vietnamese hiệu trưởng). Note that がく + こう becomes がっこう: a -ku before k also often turns into っ.

時: THỜI, hour, time

日 on the left, 寺 on the right. Sino-Vietnamese reading THỜI (also THÌ). On reading ジ, matching th → j; 寺 is also read ジ. Kun reading とき. Common words: 時間 (じかん, time; Sino-Vietnamese thời gian), 時計 (とけい, clock, a special reading).

思: TƯ, think

田 on top, 心 (heart) below. Memory hook: thinking takes the head plus the heart. Sino-Vietnamese reading TƯ. On reading シ, matching t → s; kun reading おも-う. Common words: 思う (おもう, to think), 思想 (しそう, ideology; Sino-Vietnamese tư tưởng).

語: NGỮ, language, speech

The radical 言 on the left, 吾 on the right. Sino-Vietnamese reading NGỮ. On reading ゴ, matching ng → g; 吾 is also read ゴ. Kun reading かた-る. Common words: 英語 (えいご, English; Sino-Vietnamese anh ngữ), 言語 (げんご, language; Sino-Vietnamese ngôn ngữ).

The seven kanji at a glance

Learn inside words and sentences, then review at spaced intervals

A kanji on its own often has several readings, but inside a word the reading is almost fixed. So every new character should come with at least two words and a short sentence. Read the three sentences below yourself first, and only then look at the meaning.

Memory fades over time, and meeting an item again just as you are about to forget it is the most effective way to reinforce it. That is the principle of spaced repetition (SRS): items you remember well come back less often, items you often miss come back sooner. Each review should test three sides: recalling the meaning from the character, reading a few words that contain it, and writing the shape from memory; the Sino-Vietnamese reading is a good cue for the first. A little but often is usually easier to sustain than cramming; this is a rule of thumb, not a standard figure.

Common mistakes

Treating a mnemonic as the origin: the story of "a person leaning on a tree" helps you remember 休, and sound pairs such as 時 and 寺 are only associations. For the real origin, look the character up in a character dictionary.

Trusting the Sino-Vietnamese reading over the Japanese: words such as 勉強 and 大丈夫 above are the reason. Treat the Sino-Vietnamese reading as an anchor and take the final meaning from a Japanese dictionary.

Confusing look-alikes: 土 (earth) and 士 (as in 弁護士, lawyer), 未 (not yet) and 末 (end) differ in the length of the two horizontal strokes. In 土 and 未 the lower stroke is longer; in 士 and 末 the upper one is. Their different Sino-Vietnamese readings (thổ, sĩ, vị, mạt) also help keep them apart.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use Sino-Vietnamese readings without knowing Chinese characters?

Yes. You do not need to know Chinese characters beforehand. Each time you learn a kanji, look up its Sino-Vietnamese reading and connect it with familiar Vietnamese words that contain it.

Do I need to memorise the table of patterns?

No. Use the table to check your guesses, and watch first for the most frequent pairs: -c → -ku, -t → -tsu, -nh → -ei, t → s, h → k. The rest become familiar as you meet enough examples.

Do Sino-Vietnamese readings help with kun'yomi?

No. Kun'yomi are native Japanese words and have to be learned word by word. The Sino-Vietnamese reading still helps you remember what the character means in those words.

Do I need to practise handwriting?

Handwriting helps you remember the shape and stroke order, especially early on. If you only need to read, you can focus more on recognition; many people combine both.

Should I learn radicals first or kanji first?

You do not need to finish the radicals first. Learn a few common ones such as 人, 木, 日, 言, 水, then pick up a new one each time it appears in a new character. If you know Chinese or Korean, the same approach works: the Chinese-derived readings of those languages also line up fairly regularly with on'yomi, each in its own way.

In GoMe Nihongo, kanji come with their Sino-Vietnamese reading, radical, a character breakdown and a memory hook, together with spaced-repetition review so older characters return at the right moment.

Source: Matsuda Makiko et al. (2008), How much do Sino-Vietnamese words help Vietnamese people learn Japanese?, 世界の日本語教育 no. 18 (accessed 6 October 2026) (6 Oct 2026)

Source: Matsuda Makiko (2012), Testing the ability to infer the meaning of Sino-Vietnamese words, VNU Journal of Foreign Studies 28(4) (accessed 6 October 2026) (6 Oct 2026)

Source: Nagano Masumi (2017), A survey of sound similarity between Japanese kanji words and Sino-Vietnamese readings, 広島大学日本語教育研究 no. 27 (accessed 6 October 2026) (6 Oct 2026)

Source: Hà Thị Tuệ Thành (2025), Tương ứng phụ âm đầu Hán Việt và tiếng Mân Nam Đài Loan [Initial-consonant correspondences between Sino-Vietnamese and Taiwanese Southern Min], Từ điển học và Bách khoa thư [Lexicography and Encyclopedia] no. 4 (accessed 6 October 2026) (6 Oct 2026)

Source: Hồ Minh Quang (2014), Việc nghiên cứu âm Hán Việt và ngữ âm tiếng Việt ở Trung Quốc và Nhật Bản [Research on Sino-Vietnamese readings and Vietnamese phonetics in China and Japan], Tạp chí Phát triển KH&CN [Science and Technology Development Journal] 17(X5) (accessed 6 October 2026) (6 Oct 2026)

Source: Japanese Wikipedia - 音読み, section on the final consonants of kanji readings (accessed 6 October 2026) (6 Oct 2026)

Source: Japanese Wikipedia - 呉音, comparison of Go-on and Kan-on (accessed 6 October 2026) (6 Oct 2026)

Source: Japanese Wikipedia - 慣用音, section on changes to the entering-tone ending -fu (accessed 6 October 2026) (6 Oct 2026)

Source: hvdic Han Nom dictionary (Thieu Chuu) - Sino-Vietnamese reading lookup (accessed 6 October 2026) (6 Oct 2026)

Source: Jisho.org - Japanese word meaning lookup (JMdict) (accessed 6 October 2026) (6 Oct 2026)