Tuttle Learning Japanese Kanji. Glen Nolan Grant
| SAMPLE SENTENCE: | |||
| 三人 | が | 早く | 来ました。 |
| SAN·NIN | ga | haya·ku | ki·mashita. |
| Three people | early | came. | |
| = Three people came early. |
KANJI #6
| 日 | SUN |
Meaning
This is a kanji with two primary meanings that are clearly related: “sun” and “day”. The character will become most familiar to you through its use in the days of the week, and as the initial kanji in the compound for Japan.
This is another character, incidentally, for which we do not need to make use of a story.
Common Pronunciations
Common ON reading: NICHI (ニ チ); JITSU (ジツ)
Common kun reading: hi (ひ)
日 is another example of a simple-looking kanji that can cause a bit of trouble when it comes to pronunciation. As all three of these readings occur frequently, the best approach is to look for patterns: NICHI will be encountered overwhelmingly in the first position (hi makes only a few appearances), JITSU in the second, and hi in the third – where it becomes voiced and pronounced bi (び). A perfect example of this odd behavior can be seen in the word Sunday, the final example below. Note also that NICHI acts like ITSU (from 一) by doubling up any unvoiced consonant sounds that follow it, as can be seen in the more formal rendering of the pronunciation for “Japan”, NIP·PON (ニッ.ポン), from which the more common NI·HON (ニ.ホン) has been derived.
At this point we will now start building our own sentences to memorize pronunciations. First, think of a word to approximate the on-yomi NICHI (a German philosopher, perhaps?) and the on-yomi JITSU (a martial art, maybe?). Whichever words you decide to use, don’t forget to write them in the on-yomi table at the back of the book. When it comes to the kun-yomi, suggestions will be provided for each one ahead (they can be tough to dream up at times). Don’t hesitate, however, to use your own ideas if another word springs immediately to mind. For the present character, try “he lium”; use this together with “sun” and your on-yomi keywords to create the sentence you will write in the box below.
Less Common Pronunciations
Less common ON reading: none
Less Common kun reading: ka (か)
ka is used only to identify the days of the month from 2-10, 14, 17, 20, 24 and 27.
Here are four irregular readings (the most that will appear for any character in this book). You’ve already seen the first.
| IRREGULAR READINGS | ||
| 一日 | one + day = first day of the month | tsuitachi ついたち |
| 昨日 | past + day = yesterday | kinō きのう |
| 今日 | now + day = today | kyō きょう |
| 明日 | bright + day = tomorrow | asu あす ashita あした |
| COMMON WORDS AND COMPOUNDS | ||
| 日 | sun; day | hi ひ |
| 一日 | one + day = one day | ICHI.NICHI イチ.ニチ |
| 日本 | sun + main = Japan | NI.HON ニ.ホン NIP.PON ニッ.ポン |
| 休日 | rest + day = holiday | KYŪ.JITSU キュウ.ジツ |
| 毎日 | every + day = daily | MAI.NICHI マイ.ニチ |
| 朝日 | morning + sun = morning sun | asa.hi あさ.ひ |
| 日曜日 | sun + day of the week + day = Sunday | NICHI.YŌ.bi ニチ.ヨウ.び |
| SAMPLE SENTENCE: | |||||
| 毎日 | 日本語 | の | 本 | を | 読みます。 |
| MAI·NICHI | NI·HON·GO | no | HON | o | yo·mimasu. |
| daily | Japanese | book | read | ||
| = (I) read Japanese books every day. |
COMPONENT #7
Here we have our initial “component”. These will always be introduced directly before the first character in which they appear, and will be set apart in a separate text box to indicate that they are not themselves kanji on their own.
This little guy, incidentally, can appear at various places and on various angles in a kanji. It can also show up with not only one friend, as in Entry 60, but with two, as in Entry 25.
KANJI #7
| 白 | WHITE |
Meaning
White. To the Japanese, this color symbolizes cleanliness and purity (which helps explain the presence of so many white cars in the country!). As a result, the kanji can appear in words with this shade of meaning. The fourth compound is an example.
Remembering