巨人 and 二人 reading

I just learned that 二人 is spoken like “fu-ta-ri” but just realised when i started watching the new episode of 進撃の巨人 (Attack on titan) the “巨人” is spoken like “kyo-jin”.

How do I know where use “ri” and where to use “jin”?

The reading for this word is quite strange. If you know 二つ’s reading, you can use that to remember the 二 part (ふた). But, the り that is the 人 is a total exception, something you won’t see too often (though you may have seen it in 一人). If you can use the reading of 一人 (aka if you’ve learned it already) then definitely use that. If not, do your best to remember the reading on your own. It’s a strange one that doesn’t connect to much else.

So basically 一人 and 二人 are some of the very few that uses the “ri” reading, and “にん” and “じん” should be used everywhere else?

1 Like

Yeah, 一人 and 二人 use an exceptional reading, you won’t see it anywhere else, so don’t worry about it. Instead, worry about how じん and にん are very common and there’s not way to know which one to use other than memorizing on a word by word basis.

2 Likes

Yep.

…Except where it’s pronounced ひと, such as in 人.

…Or when it’s pronounced びと, such as in 村人.

To be frank with you, 人 is a very confusing kanji with a lot of readings, just like 日. There’s no hard and fast rules, you just have to learn the reading for each word. Eventually, you’ll get enough of a feel for it that you’ll probably guess the reading right most of the time on words you haven’t seen before.

5 Likes

14 Likes

And also where it’s pronounced ど as in 狩人. (But don’t worry, that reading isn’t that common.)

1 Like

Well, if you’re gonna throw that kind of confusion into the mix, why not just bring up 大人? :stuck_out_tongue:

3 Likes

大人 isn’t even fair, you can’t even separate which part of the word goes to which kanji :cry:

It’s one of those cases where the reading for the word as a whole is just associated to the kanji pair 大人.

But yeah, you still have to memorize that anyway, so it might end up being the same thing :sweat_smile:

4 Likes

You’ll figure it out
Eventually
Who am I kidding no one understands anything about Japanese, you just have to roll with it

1 Like

It’s a pretty common word, though, so at least it’s not hard to remember. There’s a bunch of really common words like this with off-the-wall readings that never seem to be repeated anywhere else. They’d be frustratingly difficult to remember if they weren’t such common words.

Edit: I’ll never forget 大人 personally, because it’s a part of my all time favorite japanese snack food.

Forget the regular たけのこの里, this is the good stuff.

5 Likes

I’m not seeing why it’s 大人の. Does it have liquor in it? Is it for eating during sexy times? :grinning:

Maybe when you’re 大人しい, you get a クッキー

1 Like

There’s an 大人のきのこの山 as well, and I believe the main difference is that they contain dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate. The biscuit in the たけのこの里 is chocolate as well. Usually I’m not a dark chocolate guy, but these were fantastic.

And while there was no liquor in them, I did tend to enjoy them with a Strong Zero when I had access to them.

2 Likes

I’ll have to watch for them. I was in Japan last week, and I’m always looking for good omiyage to bring home. Usually it’s sweets or cookies of some kind, since Amazon has taken away the “can only get in Japan” angle of most things.

Well, you certainly can’t get them cheaply on Amazon. :cry:

When I was there, it was hit or miss whether a konbini had them. 7-11s had the best hit rate, but it wasn’t a sure thing. I never saw them in larger stores, though I never went into a standard grocery store. Hopefully they aren’t some kind of limited item.

I checked practically every convenience store I passed, and they rarely had anything exciting. When I popped into the Donki branch in Haneda Airport, however, there were whole racks of things.

An alternate option:

(I still want to find a traditional old candy shop, though. The ones run by old ladies selling 100-yen lollies to kids, you know?)

This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.