Readings with ‘coat’ for the mnemonic
| こと | 事 |
| こた | 答 |
| こつ | 骨 |
It’s been brought up in other threads but I didn’t see any tricks for how other people distinguished the readings in their minds. I’ve been trying to think of alternative mnemonics but can’t come up with anything myself.
What mnemonics did you come up with for the こ* readings?
Out of those three, “coat” sounds the most like こつ to me, so I use it for that.
Are you familiar with the Japanese instrument, the koto? Seems like that could make for good mnemonics for こと
And for こた, what about “caught”? Or making up a story about "I caught a . . . " It sounds a little off, but maybe it’s close enough?
How about a quota for こた?
For こと I use kowtow.
Amazing! Thank you!
It always felt strange to me to add an ‘o’ (こと) and ‘a’ (こた) sound to ‘coat’. When こつ came up it did sound much more natural so I think I’ll try to use coat for こつ as well.
Brilliant! 
I think it’s close enough and has a distinct enough ‘ta’ sound that will definitely help.
This would be great, except I have a feeling adding another mnemonic related to cow would start making them spotty. I already use うし, ぎゅう, かお, and む, anything else would be udderly overwhelming. I’m sorry! i’m sorry!
Totally agree, if you think cow (or its pronunciation) every time, it may cause more harm than good with pronunciation, but for some reason I’m pretty good with mnemonics that are a helpful in the romanji spelling sense even if the pronunciations are off.
怠る (おこたる) also uses “coat” (or rather, “oh, coat”) as a mnemonic.
Honestly, I just use 事 and 骨 as their own mnemonics.
I actually thought I was the first person to come up with this one! I used it for 断る just the other day. I REFUSE to Kow Tow. kow tow what?