Why doesn’t wanikani shake it’s head at me for getting the wrong reading? This shouldn’t be counted as wrong. Every time this stupid character comes up I type in にちand get it wrong.
Because ひ is the correct answer.
Because it’s an actual word and it only has 1 reading, which is ひ. If you enter anything else it’s simply wrong.
A single kanji alone as vocab usually uses the kun’yomi reading.
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I think he’s referring to the shaking that comes with giving (for instance) the on’yomi reading when WaniKani expects kun’yomi. That said, in this case they’re both kun’yomi, right? That might explain it, actually.
Edit: Woops, nichi is on’yomi. Oh well. 
Yes but if I enter in the on’yomi reading on other words that expect the kun’yomi reading, wanikani will shake the entry box “no” at me and give me a chance to enter the kun’yomi without being wrong.
Only for kanji not vocabulary, people. Vocab almost always only have 1 reading.
Oh, because its asking you the vocab reading, not the kanji reading. It only does that for kanji reading.
@Metamorphicle My fault, thought he was trying to say it shouldn’t say its wrong, because it’s right, not because it should give a second chance.
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The shaking thing applies only for kanji cards (the pink cards), if you enter on’yomi when kun’yomi is expected and vice versa. In vocab (purple cards) you are expected to know the right answer.
That being said, the vocab cards ask you how to pronounce the word if it appeared standalone (as a word) in a sentence. For that, only ひ is the right answer, as using 日 as a standalone word always has kun’yomi, and it’s usually true for other one kanji vocab words as well. にち is used in other cases only, like for jukugo words, where 日 is just ONE of the kanji characters building up the whole word.
Maybe I’m beating a dead horse at this point but it might help to think of an analogy from English.
First you’re learning how to pronounce the letter “i”, which can be read several ways, including あい (like in ivory) and い (like in ingot). Since both are correct you won’t be faulted for answering the one you’re not specifically being taught. (hence the screen-shaky thing)
Next up, you’re being taught the word “I”, this word can only be read あい. If you see it in the sentence “I am eating” and pronounce it い like in ingot, people won’t know what you’re saying. Therefore you will be faulted if you give the wrong reading.
Same with 日, if you see the sentence 夏は日が長い (days are long in the summer), it must be read ひ. You can’t pronounce it にち.
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Thanks, question answered.
Now I know vocab doesn’t do the shake thing, which I guess is why I keep getting “子” wrong too, much to my befuddlement.
I just want to say think you for this. As a beginner to the Japanese language, I’ve been scratching my head at the complexity of kanji vs vocab and all the different readings… your analogy was a light bulb moment for me.
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That’s great! I’m very happy someone found it useful.
As explained, for vocabulary (purple background), there is one and only one answer.
For kanji (pink background), there is a userscript which tells you which reading (kunyomi or onyomi) is required.
If you have never installed a userscript, please read this.
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