I just thought it should be brought up that the Hiragana ぢ "ji/di" づ "zu/du" ぢゃ "ja/da" ぢゅ "ju/du"… - Feed Post by AxeEcliptica
I just thought it should be brought up that the Hiragana ぢ "ji/di" づ "zu/du" ぢゃ "ja/da" ぢゅ "ju/du" and ぢょ "do/zo" are not often used. Just putting it out there. Still good to learn it, but maybe don't use it in conversation with a native speaker.
posted by AxeEcliptica
Comments 5
Reminds me of numbers for kanji. Generally they're used only in older texts, and less often in places they don't care for gaijins. Some of my friends thought it was silly when they looked in my text book and saw we learn them, but, it really doesn't hurt.
Would agree with most except づ. For example, off the top of my head, a common dish お茶漬け（おちゃづけ）, many pickled food items, the word for homemade (手作り), and the verb for "continue" 続く (つづく) are words containing づ but used quite regularly in Japan.
I posted some stats on this not long ago on the Chat page, but I it's disappeared now. Luckily I copied it down, so I'll post it here again.
The following figures are based on search results using http://www.jisho.org
Number without brackets = 'all words (no matter how rare or archaic)'.
Number inside brackets = 'commonly used words only'.
-Words spelt with HIRAGANA(/kanji)-
ji: *じ* = 21179 (1860), *ぢ* = 116 (10)
ja: *じゃ* = 1065 (93), *ぢゃ* = 14 (0)
ju: *じゅ* = 3649 (360), *ぢゅ* = 12 (0)
jo: *じょ* = 4596 (419), *ぢょ* = 10 (0)
zu: *ず* = 4722 (345), *づ* = 1368 (74)
-Words spelt with KATAKANA-
ji: *ジ* = 3845 (279), *ヂ* = 9 (0)
ja: *ジャ* = 541 (52), *ヂャ* = 0 (-)
ju: *ジュ* = 264 (25), *ヂュ* = 0 (-)
jo: *ジョ* = 268 (20), *ヂョ* = 0 (-)
zu: *ズ* = 1493 (130), *ヅ* = 22 (0)
As you can see, the katakana ヂャ, ヂュ and ヂョ aren't used in ANY words in their dictionary. The hiragana versions of these (ぢゃ, ぢゅ and ぢょ) are used in a very small number of words, but none of them are common words! And the katakana ヂ and ヅ aren't used in any common words either!!
To do these searches yourself on http://www.jisho.org , just type the kana you want to search in the "Japanese" text box. However, make sure to put an asterisk on both sides of the kana -- this is to make it search for the character at any of position in the word (beginning, end or somewhere in the middle). ^^- On the other hand, ディ ("di" = "de" + small version of "i") is used on Jisho.org in 1432 words (94 of these are common words), yet we have to learn ヂャ, ヂュ and ヂョ even though they aren't used in ANY words!! :D
Wow, thanks for the info Mog!!
(Meso, too. It's nice to know these things so you know not to forget them!)
