The many faces of 人 and 日

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.

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If there is a trick to this, I’d love to hear it as well. I’ve been trying to learn it for each word, and just dealing with it.

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rocks back and forth in my corner
hehehe


For real though, no there isn't. For 人 I make sure to have separate mnemonics for にん and じん.

にん is just a random female named Nina.
じん is Jin from Lost image.

日 -
Number of days are か
Days of the week are び
If the word starts with 日 it most likely starts with に


Here are all the 日 items separated by reading. Just looking at them all side by side can help you see some patterns.
じつ
じつ
休日 きゅうじつ Holiday
先日 せんじつ The Other Day
平日 へいじつ Weekdays
同日 どうじつ Same Day
近日 きんじつ Soon
両日 りょうじつ Both Days
祭日 さいじつ National H…
即日 そくじつ Same Day
嘉日 かじつ Auspicious…
連日 れんじつ Every Day
翌日 よくじつ The Next Day
聖日 せいじつ Holy Day
祝日 しゅくじつ Holiday
八日 ようか Eight Days
五日 いつか Fifth Day
九日 ここのか Nine Days
一日 いちにち* One Day
二日 ふつか Second Day
七日 なのか Seventh Day
六日 むいか Sixth Day
十日 とおか Ten Days
三日 みっか Third Day
四日 よっか Fourth Day
二十日 はつか Twentieth Day
日曜日 にちようび Sunday
木曜日 もくようび Thursday
火曜日 かようび Tuesday
水曜日 すいようび Wednesday
誕生日 たんじょうび Birthday
金曜日 きんようび Friday
月曜日 げつようび Monday
土曜日 どようび Saturday
曜日 ようび Day Of The…
記念日 きねんび Holiday
お誕生日おめでとう おたんじょうびおめでとう Happy Birt…
にっ and に
にっ and に
日程 にってい Schedule
日光 にっこう Sunlight
日光浴 にっこうよく Sunbathe
日記 にっき Diary
日刊 にっかん Daily Edition
日韓 にっかん Japan And …
日系 にっけい Japanese D…
- - -
日本 にほん Japan
日本的 にほんてき Very Japanese
日本語 にほんご Japanese Language
日本酒 にほんしゅ Japanese Style Alcohol
全日本 ぜんにほん All Japan
日本製 にほんせい Made In Japan
にち
にち
今日は こんにちは Hello
毎日 まいにち Every Day
何日 なんにち How Many Days
駐日 ちゅうにち Resident Of Japan
日常 にちじょう Everyday Life
日欧 にちおう Europe And Japan
日没 にちぼつ Sunset
ひ and Misc.
ひ and Misc.
Sun
日焼け ひやけ Sunburn
朝日 あさひ Morning Sun
- - -
明日 あした Tomorrow
一昨日 おととい Day Before…
二日酔い ふつかよい Hangover
今日 きょう Today
昨日 きのう Yesterday
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I’ll have to remember this. Thanks :smile:

For 人 there is this:

It’s not exhaustive but it’s something.

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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.

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Hmm, yes strokes chin
pop

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.

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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.

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Ahhh Jin! That’s one I won’t forget…Thanks!

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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 :slight_smile:

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This one’s a bit more niche, but I also noticed any compound using 日 to refer to Japan is going to use にち, similar to 日本.

Of course, on WaniKani, this is mostly covered by Weirdmind’s tip.

with the exception of 駐日 (ちゅうにち - resident of Japan)

oh the post is 2 months old whoops oh well you’ll learn and you’ll like it

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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!

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