"zero"
Translation:ゼロ
56 Comments
Fun fact: there's another, older, version of 'zero' (borrowed from Chinese rather than English), namely 零 （れい）
Adjunct to fun fact; that 漢字 is often now used where speakers will say ぜろ, anyway.
No, it is derived from Chinese 零 (Líng -- modern mandarin pronunciation) and as such has the pronunciation of れい based on the chinese pronunciation from when it adopted the character.
How do I read/pronounce that?
I get the rei-part, but what about the kanji?
1907
Actually, that's the hiragana. The kanji would be based on Chinese characters.
I was referring to how the rei was the furigana for the kanji and not a separate thing
What he means is that it's the hiragana way of spelling the pronunciation of the Kanji character.
When is this (zero) used versus rei? (Sorry i dont have hirgana/katakana on my phone.) Rei has been used in the sentences ive seen regarding time. For example the phrase "gozen rei ji" for 12 am. Is rei always for time and zero for numbers (like counting).
Besides time, 零 （れい） is also used for 'degree' (i.e. rotational or temperature). And besides numbers, ゼロ is used in most situations where you have an outcome of nothing (e.g. weather visibility, someone's skills, interest rates etc.). Both of them can be used in spelling out the 0 in phone numbers and in game scores, but I can't say which is the more common one.
I am trying for my 3rd crown in this module. The questions are supposed to get harder. Why are they still giving the same questions, but just more times?
It's most certainly not a "rolled r", actually. The sound is closer to an English d, than anything else.
- 1865
My Japanese teacher in college used to liken the sound to a mix of r, l and d. That may seem unpronouncable, but it is actually possible. We spent some time practicing it, back then. :)
Your teacher is dead right, assuming you come from an Anglophone background; from the perspective of an English speaker, you try to make an r but you tap the tongue on the palette ridge, away from the teeth, basically. It will likely sound like a "d" sound, if you have never heard / said it before, but over time you will learn to not treat it as an allophone for another sound.
I found this video to be very helpful when I learned how to pronounce the r's more accurately.
- 217
Why do many questions for 'zero', it must have been asked 20 times!! I think I fully understood it after three times.
Has anyone else done time on level 1 and been asked what zero is loads of times?
How did this, of all things, become a loan word?? Did Japanese just not have a distinct word for zero??
I think that the part 'Time 1' from Japanese includes this exercise too often. I know it's just for remembering it, but still it lowers my motivation a bit. :/
I dont need to practice zero so much. I watch the anime Code Geass so I'm pretty acquainted with how they pronounce Zero, its the protagonist's first name. This is the 3rd lesson of all this question. Lets move on :'D
