I'm having trouble remembering days of the week, mostly because the first kanji in the word tends… - Feed Post by Chiroptera
I'm having trouble remembering days of the week, mostly because the first kanji in the word tends to be another word entirely... like I keep reading 火曜日 with "hi"instead of "Ka." Any tips?
posted by Chiroptera
Comments 2
i have a problem with learning them too but they kinda just stuck after i kept seeing them. best thing to do is remember the first kanji and associate it with a day. like friday=gold/money day
Well the word 火 "fire" on its own is pronounced as ひ. A word which is just one kanji used on its own will usually be pronounced using the kunyomi of the kanji. ひ is a kunyomi reading of 火.
In compound kanji words (like 火曜日) each kanji is usually read by its onyomi. So in 火曜日, unless the onyomi and kunyomi are the same (extremely unlikely), then the reading you need to use for 火 can't be ひ again. か is the only onyomi reading of 火.
To remember each day, it is better to learn the meaning of each kanji:
Sunday, 日曜日 (にちようび). 日 = Sun
Monday, 月曜日 (げつようび). 月 = Moon
Tuesday, 火曜日 (かようび). 火 = fire (火星 = Mars)
Wednesday, 水曜日 (すいようび). 水 = water (水星 = Mercury)
Thursday, 木曜日 (もくようび). 木 = wood (木星 = Jupiter)
Friday, 金曜日 (きんようび). 金 = gold (金星 = Venus)
Saturday, 土曜日 (どようび). 土 = earth (土星 = Saturn)
The planets were named by the Greeks after gods from Greek mythology (Ares, Hermes, Zeus, Aphrodite, Cronos). The Romans gave the planets different names based on similar gods from Roman mythology (Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn).
The names of the weekdays were originally named by the ancient Greeks. The names were taken from the names of the Sun, Moon, and then the five planets closest to the sun (excluding our planet). Japan uses those same astrological entities for the names, it's just that Japanese has different names for the planets.
In English we use the same names for the planets that the Romans gave to them. However, we've replaced the names for Mars-day to Venus-day with the names of gods from Anglo-saxon mythology (Tyr, Woden, Thor, Frigg). For example, Jupiter-day was changed to Thor's-day (Thor, like Jupiter, being known as the god of thunder). Saturn-day was left unchanged though.
The first two days of the week, Sun-day (日) and Moon-day (月), should be easy enough to recognise... The other five days you just need to remember their order: fire, water, wood, gold, earth.
If you've watched any of the anime Sailor Moon, then that will make remembering Mars-day (火) and Mercury-day (水) a lot easier!
Even the last three days fit the other Sailor Moon characters: Jupiter (木) was known as a god of thunder; Venus (金) a goddess of beauty and desire; and Saturn (土) a god of death and renewal. (I wonder if I should not have mentioned Sailor Moon? haha...) ^^;
