# れ reading of 列 **URL:** \ **Category:** Kanji\ **Created:** [July 16, 2018, 10:01am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/%E3%82%8C-reading-of-%E5%88%97/31796 "2018-07-16T10:01:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![coobie](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/coobie/32/223716_2.png) [@coobie](https://community.wanikani.com/u/coobie)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2018, 10:01am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/%E3%82%8C-reading-of-%E5%88%97/31796/1 "2018-07-16T10:01:22Z")
WK teaches the readings れつ and れ for the kanji [列](https://www.wanikani.com/kanji/%E5%88%97) (“Let’s (れつ) Ray! (れ).”) My question is: is the れ reading important enough to be taught at all? My (admittedly limited) searches have found only a couple of ateji in which it’s read as れ. 虎列剌 Cholera 列寧 Lenin 😂 So I thought I’d check with the more experienced folk here before bothering the WK team about it. ---
**Author:** ![Leebo](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/leebo/32/439476_2.png) [@Leebo](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Leebo)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2018, 10:26am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/%E3%82%8C-reading-of-%E5%88%97/31796/2 "2018-07-16T10:26:20Z")
Sometimes it seems like they just take info from JMdict,etc (the free database that Jisho and other E-J dictionaries often use) without checking if it’s accurate or worth including or not. I don’t think it’s even valid for 列寧 I would just email them about it. ---
**Author:** ![Radish8](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/radish8/32/206088_2.png) [@Radish8](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Radish8)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2018, 10:35am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/%E3%82%8C-reading-of-%E5%88%97/31796/3 "2018-07-16T10:35:35Z")
On top of that, it’s a confusing mnemonic. They use ‘ray’ to help you remember the れい reading elsewhere, including 例, which is partly composed of this kanji, so I am always getting 列 wrong through writing れい. If it’s not even a particularly important reading, getting rid of this part altogether would make things much less confusing. ---
**Author:** ![jprspereira](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/jprspereira/32/389740_2.png) [@jprspereira](https://community.wanikani.com/u/jprspereira)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2018, 11:36am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/%E3%82%8C-reading-of-%E5%88%97/31796/4 "2018-07-16T11:36:30Z")
例 is more “complex” than 列 so to balance, their readings are the opposite. れい is more “simple” than れつ so the former goes to 例. That’s how I did it to distinguish them 🤔 Not sure if it helps 💜 ---
**Author:** ![Radish8](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/radish8/32/206088_2.png) [@Radish8](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Radish8)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2018, 1:16pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/%E3%82%8C-reading-of-%E5%88%97/31796/5 "2018-07-16T13:16:33Z")
That is indeed a good way 😊 It’s less that I struggle to distinguish them and more that it took me a while even to realise _why_ I kept getting 列 wrong, because I just associate ‘ray’ with れい and had the mnemonic stuck in my head. Now that I’ve realised, I just stick to れつ, but this is a good way of remembering the other reading, so thanks 💜 ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/original/4X/6/2/a/62a8b0f4c59ff2c5b6651ffcf43531480b3e5297.png) [@system](https://community.wanikani.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 1:30pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/%E3%82%8C-reading-of-%E5%88%97/31796/6 "2019-07-16T13:30:59Z")
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