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- "今日はたんじょう日です。"
"今日はたんじょう日です。"
Translation:Today is my birthday.
30 Comments
To put it simply, there is more than one way to read/pronounce a given character. Kanji can be read using the various onyomi (derived from the Chinese) OR kunyomi (original to Japan) - there are exceptions to this rule which have a single reading, however. In the case of 誕生日 - a compound word, of sorts - 日 is read as び, whereas in the word 毎日 it is read as にち. In my experience (which is limited, but I digress) I have only seen 日 pronounced as ひ when referring specifically and singularly to the sun - though I will not be surprised if a native or more advanced learner can provide an example where this is not always the case
To put it simply, there is more than one way to read/pronounce a given character. Kanji can be read using the various onyomi (derived from the Chinese) OR kunyomi (original to Japan) - there are exceptions to this rule which have a single reading, however. In the case of 誕生日 - a compound word, of sorts - 日 is read as び, whereas in the word 毎日 it is read as にち. In my experience (which is limited, but I digress) I have only seen 日 pronounced as ひ when referring specifically and singularly to the sun - though I will not be surprised if a native or more advanced learner can provide an example where this is not always the case
To put it simply, there is more than one way to read/pronounce a given character. Kanji can be read using the various onyomi (derived from the Chinese) OR kunyomi (original to Japan) - there are exceptions to this rule which have a single reading, however. In the case of 誕生日 - a compound word, of sorts - 日 is read as び, whereas in the word 毎日 it is read as にち. In my experience (which is limited, but I digress) I have only seen 日 pronounced as ひ when referring specifically and singularly to the sun - though I will not be surprised if a native or more advanced learner can provide an example where this is not always the case
1335
In Japanese, they often change the pronunciation slightly when combined with other words for the sake of convenience. Here, the kanji 「日」originally pronounced 「ひ」 is changed to 「び」, just like every day of the week from Monday to Sunday, they all pronounced as 「び」.
Another common example is the word「寿司」. It is usually pronounced as 「すし」when stands alone, but when combined with other words, it reads 「ずし」. For example, 「握り寿司」、「巻き寿司」。