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Is it possible to separate words with alternative writings but different meanings? #1624

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Aridow opened this issue Apr 22, 2021 · 3 comments

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@Aridow
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Aridow commented Apr 22, 2021

Description
For instance, if I scan 聞くor 聴く, their meanings are always the same. But it's wrong (if I trust ja.wiktionary.org), since 聴く only means "to hear" and not "to ask". I tried with "group related terms" but it didn't work. Is there a way to separate meanings based on writing?

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Firefox 88.0

Yomichan version
21.3.31.1

@toasted-nutbread
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Not sure which dictionaries you are using, but JMDict lists these as having the same definitions:
https://jisho.org/search/聴く
https://jisho.org/search/聞く

@Thermospore
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Thermospore commented Apr 22, 2021

JMdict added some notes about when one is more relevant than the other (this info is currently missing from yomichan's version of JMdict)
http://www.edrdg.org/jmdictdb/cgi-bin/entr.py?svc=jmdict&sid=&q=1591110.1

There are a lot of words like this where they basically mean the same thing, but have a different nuance depending on what kanji you use. Another example is 見る・観る・視る

You will see a lot of variety from dictionary to dictionary on how they express this. Some group them all together, some split them up, some pick a main one and then add footnotes, etc.

JMdict tends to only split them up if they have notably different meanings. They will add notes or restrict senses to specific kanji as needed.

I wouldn't worry too much about it, or take any dictionary as law. You will naturally pick up on the nuance of each kanji usage over time

@toasted-nutbread
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It seems that this issue is mostly related to #1165, which has not been implemented yet. Tagging the issue so that it shows up as a related issue.

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