Another thing to note is that for する verbs, you’ll only find them with the noun definition (so “orbit” rather than “to orbit” - though in this case, you wouldn’t have found it since the definition Jisho gives is “revolution (of a celestial body around another)”, which seems like a lot of words to say orbit)
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Yes, it took me a while to figure that out when I was just starting to use Jisho. I kept thinking “but I know it’s a word!” whenever I got to a する word.
Indeed. I’m pretty sure “to orbit” would’ve been much easier for everyone involved!
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During a book club read aloud today, we encountered 息を吐く. I read it as いきをつく, but the other two people thought it should be いきをはく. The full sentence was:
心底ほっとしてこころが息を吐くと、アキが笑った。
Which is correct in this case? I was under the impression that when tied to things like breathing it would be つく, but I’m not sure if that’s a global rule or if it’s contextual (or if I’m just wrong).
Some other examples I’ve seen with 息を吐く were:
ゆっくりと息を吐く
わたしがホッと安堵の息を吐く
満足の息を吐く
Besides 息を吐く, I’ve also seen ため息を吐く and 息を吐き出す. I’m pretty sure ため息を吐く is always つく, but I’m not sure about 息を吐き出す because I only see a dictionary entry for はきだす.
Did they have any particular reasoning? Or they just didn’t know that つく is a reading of 吐く?
I think one of them didn’t know at all, but the other might have thought it was only read as つく with ため息. I don’t remember exactly.
It doesn’t help that the Japanese dictionary entry for つく includes:
息を吐き出す。「ため息を―・く」
呼吸する。「肩で息を―・く」「一息―・く」
And for はく it includes:
胃や肺の中のものを口・鼻から外へ出す。「血を―・く」「息を―・く」
So 息を吐く is literally an example for はく, while the つく examples use ため息 and 一息.
Even this page doesn’t help much, because while it says:
”息を吐き出す”場合には、必ず、「つく」と読みます。例えば、「肩で息をつく」、「一息つく」も、「肩で息を吐く」、「一息吐く」と書いて、「吐く」の部分を「つく」と読みます。
It doesn’t use 息を吐く completely on its own, so I’m still not sure.
I think 息をはく is certainly not impossible, but I wouldn’t read it that way without furigana.
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I think 息をつく is fine here, but I would have read it as はく
EDIT: Yep, just checked a couple audio books I had and they read it as はく.
So yeah, if I were you I would definitely read it as はく in cases like this.
EDIT2: Yeep, checking more audiobooks they are all はく lol. Again not saying japanese people wouldnt make that mistake of reading it tsuku, but it looks like the right answer is definitely はく
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just adding a relevant link
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息をつく definitely exists, so I’m not sure I would call it a mistake to use つく with 息. Unless you mean that the audiobook way of reading is proof that it’s a mistake to read it another way.
Based on the difference between つく and はく, wouldn’t they mean subtly different things though? I’m mostly trying to figure out if there’s a default reading I should lean towards when there’s no furigana.
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I’m sure at the very least they do feel a bit different. I’m just thinking of things that are ambiguous in text, whether intentionally or not, and how when an audiobook is recorded they have to make a decision that the author may or may not have actually made when they wrote the word. Like, I can imagine intentionally ambiguous text, but you can’t read that ambiguously aloud.
Not saying that this example falls in that category, but just thinking of the general use of an audiobook to decide that some other reading is a mistake.
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I subvocalize when I read, so not knowing really bugs me. 
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Iki wo tsuku is what I wrote initially wheere its more like taking a breather rather than focusing physically on taking a breath. I don’t think it’s ambiguous really and when it’s people letting out a breath/exhaling I would say to read it as haku.
EDIT: oh wow I just realized I completely deleted what I said earlier. I think you have it backwards and when they want you to read it as tsuku there will be furigana or just no kanji more likely tbh rather than the other way around. Although I’ll tell you, the only time I have ever seen it as tsuku it never had kanji to begin with and it’s always like 息をつく暇がない. Googling it seems to be in agreement that tsuku is mental nuance and haku is physical lung nuance
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Perhaps this is just the consequence of how I study. I learned 息を吐く as a set, and if you search dictionaries for the string 息を吐く you will get entries for いきをつく in my experience. And seeing as つく is a Kanken pre-1 reading for 吐く while はく is jouyou, I’ve just got it at the forefront of my mind right now. Such dictionaries will also include the physical meaning of just letting out a breath as well. Dictionaries will not tell you how often the physical breath meaning is used (that is to say, hardly ever apparently).
So, I suppose I failed to keep in mind that 息をつく was an expression that could co-exist with the “non-expression” / “just the words at face value” string of 息をはく. Essentially, there’s no reason for there to be dictionary entries for 息をはく because it’s just what the words mean with nothing more, and with both kanji being not particularly advanced as jouyou kanji, I haven’t encountered an いきをはく sentence in my kanji studies in a long time (if I ever did).
This is the kind of thing that shows up on Kanken pre-1 and is supposed to catch you out for thinking it’s はく where only つく is right. Or you will be presented with the reading of つく and have to write 吐く. However, obviously つく is not always right, and I lost sight of that.
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How would y’all translate スタイル here?
I think it’s surely not talking about staying in shape while solo traveling. I want to assume that it means along the same lines as マイペース, but I’m not sure how to say that in a non awkward way in English.
My 5 cents to the topic:
All doctors and such I’ve met in Japan said 息を吸う and 息をはく when giving instructions for x-ray or stethoscope.
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I’m not an English native, but I would go with something along
Travel plans tailored to your own taste/style
Is “style” that awkward a choice for native speakers in this case?
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While I feel like that makes good sense, I don’t think that’s very true to the phrasing in the image. I guess while “style” is fine in English, I want to make sure the Japanese meaning is actually captured since it’s so often used to refer to physical appearance that dictionaries usually refer first to physique, then fashion.
The sense of “style” meaning “a particular way in which something is done, created, or performed” does exist in Japanese.
個人や集団などに固有の、考え方や行動のしかた。
Your post made it sound like you might be concerned it didn’t.
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I wasn’t sure if I was missing some nuance since it’s not the primary meaning.