Hi everyone,
Do you ever go on Google Translate or something and get a different read for a kanji? I sometimes get “mikoto” instead of “inochi”.
What do you think about that? 
I think Google translate is only marginally better at handling Japanese than it was a decade ago, and let me tell you, that’s a low bar to clear.
9 Likes
I can’t even remember the last time I used google translate for jp related stuff since it’s so unreliable. In most cases, I use jisho.org.
4 Likes
Can you share an example sentence for which it reads みこと?
It could potentially not be wrong… depending on context. みこと is a reading of 命 (marked 外, so not taught in school, I think?), but it seems to only be used for two words, both of which have presumably more common spellings and also seem like pretty rare words in the first place, so uh, somehow that doesn’t exactly inspire the confidence that it wasn’t incorrect.
I could be surprised, but generally, machine translations (and what readings they determine) aren’t very reliable.
3 Likes
I think みこと is one of the potential name readings for 命: Jisho currently lists it as item 4, after あきら, いのち, and まこと.
2 Likes
The other spelling shown here, 御言, gives a more straightforward rationale for this spelling: み is honorific (mainly used in spiritual/religious contexts I believe) and こと is word or saying. It’s the same み in 宮(みや) which is 御+屋.
Using the kanji 命 for that is just the Japanese being creative with the application of Chinese characters to japonic vocabulary as usual.
Anyway yeah don’t use Google translate for Japanese.
2 Likes
This searching and finding kanji is not for me , i only trust wanikani now and if it says おはよう isn’t good morning but good night then i will beilieve it as such .
1 Like
