上 and 手 are read as ue and te respectively when used individually. ue means up, over, above, on etc and te means hand.
but then 上手 together is jouzu, meaning skillful
and then 上手い is umai, which means good (because of skill, presumably)

similarly:
typically 今 is read as ima, 日 is read as hi, ima meaning this moment, hi meaning day
and so 今日 is kyou, meaning today
and 今日は is konnichiwa, you know what that means.
but people need to talk about today with 今日は and this is why こんにちは is the preferred way to write konnichiwa


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