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- "さん"
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Japanese borrowed its kanji writing system along with its most commonly used number system from China. They aren't exactly the same as the original Chinese was altered to fit into the Japanese phonetic system and pronunciations shift a bit over the years, but overall they're very similar.
They are written the same, but not completely pronounced the same.
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Also, the number three would never be written in hiragana like this in Japanese. It would be written 三, or just using the Arabic numeral 3. Normally, if you see 'さん' in writing, you would expect it to mean Mr./Mrs./Miss.
But those synonyms are pure Japanese. All the rest are Sino-. Another pure Japanese way to count is ひ、ふ、み、よ、い、む、な、や、こ、と, but the vowel is normally stretched out an extra beat (mora). Then there's いち、にー、さん、しー、ごー、ろく、しち、はち、くー、じゅう, again with two morae each and like my preference when I'm not in a hurry.
a little help on numbers if anyone needs help! ^^ One - itchi - my leg is itchy Two - ni - someones knee three - san - like the sun or a son four - yon - I wasn't taught this way so find a way to remember it! I learned it like (she) shi Five - gol ( I think) - someone scored a goal in soccer six - roku - rock (nonliving) or rock star seven - nana - bananas! eight - hatchi - a chick is about to hatch nine - que ( I think) - like the letter Q ten - Jew - yeah.... uh hope this helped ^^
Nice memory tools, although you're slightly off on numbers 5 and 9. Here are the onyomi of each:
一:ichi いち
二:ni に
三:san さん
四:yon, shi よん / し
五:go ご
六:roku ろく
七:nana, shichi なな / しち
八:hachi はち
九:kyuu, ku きゅう / く
十:juu じゅう
し sounds exactly like 死 (death), so よん is usually preferred. Same goes for しち — too close to 死, so なな is usually preferred.
There are also kunyomi (native) pronunciations, but these are usually only used in counters and such so you'll get to them later.
[2019/03/22]
All numbers (and kanji in general) have a native Japanese reading and a Sino-Japanese reading
For the majority of counting we use the Sino-Japanese system いち、に、さん
一本 - いっぽん - one book
二冊 - にさつ - two volumes
三枚 - さんまい - three sheets
Though 4 and 7 specifically tend to use the native reading more often よん、なな because their Sino readings し、しち、sound like 死 "death" and are considered bad luck.
We use the native Japanese readings with only a few specific instances.
With Japanese counters like つ, a very general all-purpose counter
一つ is ひとつ, not いちつ - one thing
二つ - ふたつ - two things
三つ - みっつ - three things
for one or two people 人 (after two the sino counters are used)
一人 - ひとり - one person
二人 - ふたり - two people
三人 - さんにん - three people
and for certain days of the month (but not all, and some have very irregular readings)
二日 - ふつか - the second day of the month
三日 - みっか - the third day of the month
(The first day is completely irregular, 一日 is pronounced ついたち )
The correct number is three, not four, and "san" is also a very common honorific suffix on a name generally translated to Mr/Mrs/Ms. When multiple answers are acceptable the one shown to you after getting it incorrect is somewhat randomized. You can hover over the question or tap it on mobile to see the translation. Similarly when you learn "kiru" the answer will either be shown as "cut" or "wear" since they are homophones, though the word you're wanted to focus on is "wear".
If it is a normal translating question you need to write the word in English.
If it was a "type what you hear" question, those only accept one single 'best' answer since they are auto-generated by Duo, not made by the contributors. Since this is from the hiragana skill only the hiragana is acceptable.
Thank you. Before I thought that the sample pronounciation, if men is "san", but if the women pronounce, it "sang".
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/23052484$comment_id=36811273
If it is a normal translating question you need to write the word in English.
If it was a "type what you hear" question, those only accept one single 'best' answer since they are auto-generated by Duo, not made by the contributors. Since this is from the hiragana skill only the hiragana is acceptable.
It depends on what comes next. If nothing comes after it it's sort of like the French nasal (Japanese linguists call it a uvular nasal, but the physiology of that isn't clear to me) but on rare occasions a person might say it with any of the other three nasals: "yon," "yom," or "yong." none of which are "wrong."
It is always extremely obvious whether you are using the number or the prefix, as you would never say a number directly after someone's name like that. It's really not that different from English, where many words can have multiple meanings, and it's just assumed from the context. Here it is very easy, because you would never use the number as the prefix is used.
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Can anyone tell me if the さん here also means さん for Mr. . For example, タカシ-さん, does the San here also the same?
Duo's grading system let's you be about one letter off in spelling and accepts it as long as it doesn't make a new word. It has no idea how to handle single numbers that aren't written out. So any number is going to just look like a typo to it. The correct translation is 3, 三, "three". It will accept 1,2,4,5, etc as a typo, but it will mark you wrong if you write it out as one, two, four, five, etc.
In what way do you mean?
さ "sa" and ち "chi" are inverse of each other, yes.
Depending on the font being used they may look slightly different. Sometimes their top and bottom curves will be disconnected, sometimes they will be all one piece. They're written the same way, just some fonts depict the slight lifting of the brush going around a curve you would see in calligraphy.
Writing in English means writing using English words, the English language. Like speaking in English means talking using English words.
Saying the opposite would suppose you say. "san" when someone ask you to talk in English.
Writing romanji is not writing in English, it's writting in Japanese, using Latin letters. A phonetic transcription.