Hello. I am having trouble writing double consonants. When should I write"んん" and "ん"? For… - Feed Post by yiptic
Hello. I am having trouble writing double consonants. When should I write"んん" and "ん"? For example, konnichiwa.
Would there be double ん or んに?
Also, may you explain why there is は instead of わ at the end of konnichiwa? Can it be said as konnichiha, and when do I use these sounds?
Would there be double ん or んに?
Also, may you explain why there is は instead of わ at the end of konnichiwa? Can it be said as konnichiha, and when do I use these sounds?
posted by yiptic
Comments 9
こんにちは
When は is not actually part of the word, but rather means, "is," it is sounded like wa, otherwise it is pronounced ha.
Konnichiha literally means today is...
I see. Thank you :)
Double ん never happens.
"konnichiwa" is made up of three parts:
今 = こん "kon" (meaning: now)
日 = にち "nichi" (meaning: day/sun)
は = ... "wa" (this is the 'topic' particle "wa")
Or should probably say it is made up of two parts: 今日 + は
こんにちは is pretty much always written in hiragana though, but it is possible to write it in kanji like I've shown.
今日 is normally used for きょう "kyou" (meaning: today), so if you write"konnichiwa" as 今日は, it could get mistaken as "kyou wa" but "konnichi wa" is another way of reading it (meaning pretty much the same thing, just that "konnichiwa" can be used as a greeting expression but "kyou wa" cannot be used for this.)- As for why は is pronounced "wa". Here's an explanation completely from my memory, so could just be something I dreamt...
Many many years ago in Japan (no idea how many...) は was used in the middle and end of words but nearly always sounded like "wa" when spoken. Eventually the spelling of most words containing は in the middle and end of words were changed to be spelled with わ instead. There was debate about whether the は particle should be changed to わ too because it is tacked onto the end of words and so sounds like "wa" also. Changing the spelling of such an important particle could have been very troublesome, and anyway, it was decided against and left spelled as は.
は at the begining of words is easy to pronounce as "ha", so these weren't affected or changed at all.
I wonder if I dreamt that or whether it is actually real? I can't be bothered to go look it up though. ^^;
Probably learnt about it a long time ago on this crazy page (or somewhere else), if anyone is interested enough to go check:
http://kafkafuura.wordpress.com/classical-japanese/ 
こんにちは is pretty much always written in hiragana because if you use the kanji it can be easily mistaken for something else. If you mean the greeting, stick with the hiragana.
I've yet to see こんにちは written using the kanji by a native speaker, and have been told by Japanese people never to do so. So just stick with the hiragana on that one. (Although mog, if you've got a valid writing of こんにちは with the kanji by a Japanese person, I'd be very interest in seeing it to pass it on to my in-laws/co-workers and watch them explode).- Thank you Arachkid, mog86uk, and manfred. I understand more than I did when I posted this question.
- @Arachkid Haha, yeah. I think the only time I can safely say I've seen it used is by other beginner learners of Japanese. :P
What I have seen is 今日 read as こんにち instead of きょう, but this is used literally as meaning 'today' or 'recent days' NOT as the greeting (as far as I can remember). You're probably completely right about 今日は never being used for the "konnichiwa" greeting. :) 
for the kanji konnichiwa you have to have a correct pitch accent like ex. ame it means two this rain and candy if you wanna say rain your a has to be high pitched and me has to be low pitched and for candy its the oppesit hope you keep this in mind- Not entirely sure how you make kanji have accents. Regardless, rarely will you ever hear "konnichiwa" outside of the greeting. It is a more formal way of saying kyou, but you'll find if people want to get more formal they'll just go with 本日 or ほんじつ.
