人 On'yomi remembering ニン vs ジン

Japanese Language Kanji
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I really struggle to remember the different on yomi readings for 人。
Does anyone have any hints or mnemonic to remember the reading? Or any specific mnemonic for particular words?

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Its not worth remembering dozens of mnemonics for every single word with 人. Keep consuming Japanese content and you will eventually remember them all.

If you havnt started doing that now is probably a good time to start as you know a good chunk of the very common kanji

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There are some usage patterns there that can be good to look into.

Welcome to the forums, by the way! :waving_hand:

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This is not perfect, but it works often enough.

JIN is usually something that’s permanent, something you can’t change.

  • nihonJIN - a Japanese person is always Japanese
  • hakuJIN - a white person is always white
  • gaiJIN - a foreigner is always a foreigner

NIN is usually something that may change

  • juuNIN - resident - you may move some day
  • shouNIN - merchant - it’s just a job, and you’re not a merchant after business hours
  • sanNIN - three people - soon one will go the other way and the group will disolve

I remember this by thinking:

  • a genine (JINie) always lives in his bottle, it’s not something that can be easily changed
  • a NINja is only a ninja while he’s at work, when he takes off his ninja uniform, he’s a normal person

Again, this is not perfect, but it works often enough. If I wonder if the reading is NIN or JIN I can often guess it right when I think for a minute if this is a permanent thing or a temporary thing.

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