人 and 日 appear to be incredibly common, and I can’t for the life of me keep track of which word uses which pronunciation. Is there any kind of handy trick for remembering when 人 is にん and when it’s じん? Any pattern to にち vs じつ? Is there a subtle difference in meaning implied by the two pronunciations? Or is it more or less a random thing to be memorized on a word by word basis?
I only just hit level 9. I’m can only guess what other kanji await me with multiple common onyomi readings.
The ones mentioned on WK are exceptions. Aside from those you also have 十四日(じゅうよっか)二十日(はつか)and 二十四日(にじゅうよっか). All other days of the month are ‘number’+ にち, so 12th for example becomes じゅうににち.
But in actuality, that list does help a lot, even if it’s WK-specific. I can’t really put my finger on it, but when looking at them as a list, there’s something about the flavor of what kind of “day” gets one reading or another.
If you keep smashing your head against the wall… you will someday just mysteriously know which one to use.
That is to say I think the key is lots of listening and getting used to the vocabulary that is used. Words simply simply won’t make sense when using the wrong reading.
About the use of じん にん ひと, there doesn’t seem to be an exact rule for every situation, but there are some trends:
・When counting people, it is にん (with the exception of ひとり & ふたり)
・If the kanji is on its own and not part of a compund word, it is ひと (男の人 etc)
・if the former part of the compound word expresses an attribute or situation, it is often じん
日本人 (にほんじん) -> 日本の人 (にほんのひと) --- japanese person
美人 (びじん) -> 美しい人 (うつくしいひと) --- beautiful person
・If the former part of compund word expresses action/behaviour, it is often にん
管理人 (かんりにん) -> 管理する人 (かんりするひと) --- manager / person who does management
住人 (じゅうにん) -> 住んでいる人 (すんでいるひと)--- resident / person who lives (in a building)
Of course there most likely are exceptions as well, so only way is to actually learn the words one by one
First post here, but been lurking in this wonderful community the last week or so I’ve been using WK.
A lot of this is beyond me at the moment, but my eyes lit up when I saw this in my recent posts.
I, er, have nothing constructive to add to the conversation other than a general thank you to OP and all the replies. It helps now and I’m soooo sure it’s gonna help later down the road. Highly appreciated!