Title says it all. Maybe I do not have an adequate foundation for grammer, but how would I know which is the correct reading for 店?
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It has nothing to do with grammar. The word 店 is read みせ. It does get easier as you learn more words.
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I would say that お店 is almost always going to be おみせ. I’ve never heard any use of おたな, the other possible reading, before.
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Thanks. The other reading is てん Leebo. Perhaps a typo.
So looks like I only ever see てん in compounds.
I’m talking about this word.
I figured that was what you were asking about, since お店 can be おみせ or おたな, though おたな seems very rare or possibly archaic.
おてん is not an option.
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Like in 支店 and 喫茶店.
Oh, I did not know there was that reading. That confuses me more.
To be honest I didn’t know about it either until this thread. I figured you popped お店 into Jisho or something and saw both entries.
Nah, I’m not that smart.
Perhaps I need to understand why おてん is not an option.
Well, a rule of thumb going forward is that when you see お in front of a word to make it polite, it’s probably a kunyomi that follows. If you see ご it’s probably an onyomi that follows.
So, basically if it was ご店 you might guess it was ごてん (though that’s not a real word)
There are exceptions, of course, but that’s how they are generally used.
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Thanks. I know that perhaps part of my problem is that as I learn, I need to also commit to memory which reading is which. Thanks.
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It might help to memorize some of the limitations of onyomi and kunyomi. みせ cannot possibly be an onyomi (it has two different vowel sounds, and the second isn’t lengthening the first or anything like that). I’m not sure that てん couldn’t possibly be a kunyomi, but it’s certainly much more likely to be an onyomi than a kunyomi, since it’s two mora and ends in ん.
Sometimes you get ones that could be either like か or し, but other times they make it easy by being exclusionary by their form.
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I’m not sure if it could be, but it’s certainly not ever one. Of the 143 kanji with てん as a reading, every single one is on’yomi.
The one possible exception is that てんまど is supposedly a kun’yomi for 窓, but that feels more like some sort of etymological abbreviation for 天窓 to me.
Edit: No wait, I missed one. 貂 has てん as kun’yomi. The dictionary on my iPhone has a second one, but I can’t seem to find it on Jisho with radical lookup - it’s basically the same kanji as that one but with “mouse” as the left half instead of “badger”. Ah, that ol’ Golden Rule of Japanese. Also, supposedly 一 and 出 have てん as nanori.
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Also, make sure you are learning words, not just kanji readings. Using your earlier example of 支店, don’t think of it as the kanji 支 read as し and the kanji 店 read as てん, but rather as a single word read as してん. The same applies to 店. Know that as a standalone word (not a suffix), it’s read みせ. And from the guidelines @Leebo mentioned, お店 is おみせ.
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This sort of stuff is :
1: Memorization
2: Context
3: Becoming familiar with reading norms
4: Memorization again
There are some rules you can learn for tough readings (人 as にん, じん, or ひと being a useful pseudo-rule to learn) but overall you merely have to memorize it.
This one is easy though.
If there is an お it will pretty much always be おみせ and don’t worry about the other readings. You’ll start noticing that a lot of words have alternate readings that are only ever used in Samurai movies, and if you say them in real life you’ll get a laugh.
I used おかみさん for a little bit when I was first learning (saw it in a samurai movie) when calling for a waitress. Always got a huge laugh because it made me come off as a gruff country ronin (very rude if a native were to use it), but over time I gave it up as I just wanted to adapt better. Still fun to use occasionally though.
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Makes more sense now. Thanks.
wow i just popped in to say that this tidbit is extremely interesting and helpful, thank you! I learned this today from you
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