This is my first post on the forums so sorry if it’s repetitive or not in the right place.
Does anyone have a better mnemonic for these types of readings? WK seems to use FOOT for both ふとand ふた and I keep getting them mixed up. It’s particularly frustrating because I know what the words mean and can visualize the entire mnemonic but can’t tell if it ends with O or A.
Fortunately, these are both fairly uncommon readings, and I’m pretty sure you’ll never see ふた anywhere* where it doesn’t mean “two” or “pair” or the like, which you will probably internalize quite quickly through common words like 二つ and 二人.
* Except for cases where the ふ and た come from different kanji, as in 負担.
For 太い, you might imagine that somebody is fat because they never get out of their futon.
I think between this reply and JarJar1027’s reply that will help me straighten these out for now. That Futon style of mnemonic (spelling it out) really seems to work for me.
I’m fat, so just think think of me when you think of 太い, if that helps!
Seriously though, I hear it all the time from Japanese people (almost no one is shy about this!) so I can’t even imagine not knowing or forgetting that word. Counterintuitively, the absolutely casual manner in which friends and acquaintances will say that has kind of desensitized me to being offended, even in English; it’s just a matter of fact – another unexpectedly refreshing aspect of Japanese culture.
ふた, on the other hand, is 蓋, a lid, both for pots and many other (often surprising, e.g. 瘡蓋) things. You probably haven’t gotten to that one yet, but it’s really common and useful to know, and I’d say easier to remember than ふた from counting (which is a whole other can of worms). Cheers!
Hey again! I wanted to update you to let you know we took a look at your suggestion and agreed we should have different mnemonic words to represent ふと and ふた. We’ve now updated the following vocab items: 二つ, 太い, 太る, and 再び. Thanks for bringing it up!
Everywhere, probably. Some manga. A cookbook. The back of a packet of instant noodles. It’s a common word for a commonplace thing, but it’s such a nasty kanji that it’s usually written in kana. Often katakana.
Honestly, I can’t recall ever having seen the kanji used in the wild. As you say, it’s generally written in kana. That’s why I assumed I must have learned the kanji from WaniKani, but…sure enough it ain’t there! One of life’s great mysteries… Anyway, I stand by my suggestion, as it’s a good word to know in general, regardless of where it’s learnt!