The course of the day is about the days of the week and the solar system. So, most of you are already wondering what the connection is between the two. Do not worry, you will understand little by little.
The kanji that we are going to see now, you already know them, these are the kanji that you learned in your very first vocabulary course. So if you’ve learned your lesson well, which I hope you’re supposed to know. Today we are going to see these same kanji but in their Sino-Japanese version.
In Japan, as in many countries of the world, the week is made up of seven days. Small peculiarity : we start with Sunday. A kanji is linked to each day which will therefore represent the day in question.
Observe below :
Sunday → (sun) . 日
Monday → (moon) . 月
Tuesday → (fire) . 火
Wednesday → (water) . 水
Thursday → (wood) . 木
Friday → (metal) . 金
Saturday → (land) . 土
Then, just add the ending 曜日 . ヨウび which means « day of the week » and you have the name of the days. Observe below :
Sunday → (sun) .
日曜日 .
ニチヨウび
Monday → (moon) .
月曜日 .
ゲツヨウび
Tuesday → (fire) .
火曜日 .
カヨウび
Wednesday → (water) .
水曜日 .
スイヨウび
Thursday → (wood) .
木曜日 .
モクヨウび
Friday → (metal) .
金曜日 .
キンヨウび
Saturday → (land) .
土曜日 .
ドヨウび
So, remember that you absolutely must put the name of the day + 曜日 . ヨウび. For example, if you mean « Monday », you’re not going to say ニチ because it simply means « the day » (speaking of the moment of the day) ; you’ll say 日曜日 . ニチヨウび.
However, it can happen that on Japanese calendars, it is only marked the name of the day, without the ending 曜日 . ヨウび for the simple reason that once we understand that we have a calendar in front of us, it is not necessarily necessary to add 曜日. ヨウび. The name of the day is more than enough. And above all, don’t forget that the first day of the week is Sunday for the Japanese. For English speakers, Monday is the first day of the week and if you are not careful, you may be confused. This can have quite unfortunate consequences, especially if you want to book a plane ticket or a hotel room. On some Japanese websites, the calendar menu may display the name of the days only in kanji, so be careful. You may find yourself booking a hotel room or a plane ticket on Sunday, believing it to be Monday. So, beware, you can ruin a trip to Japan because of unfortunate carelessness.
Now that all of this has been explained, we can move on to the second part : the solar system.
We finally come to the solar system. You will soon understand the connection between the days of the week and the solar system. You’ll see, it’s really easy.
First, I’m going to start by giving you a kanji, which you already saw in your first vocabulary course, with its purely Japanese pronunciation and its Sino-Japanese pronunciation.
星 .
ほし .
セイ
It is therefore the kanji of « the star » and which we will find in planet names.
To better understand, we will resume the days of the week that we saw above :
Sunday .
日曜日 .
ニチヨウび
Monday .
月曜日 .
ゲツヨウび
Tuesday .
火曜日 .
カヨウび
Wednesday .
水曜日 .
スイヨウび
Thursday .
木曜日 .
モクヨウび
Friday .
金曜日 .
キンヨウび
Saturday .
土曜日 .
ドヨウび
We will start with the Sun (with a capital « S »). Let’s go back to « Sunday » :
Sunday .
日曜日 .
ニチヨウび
To say « the Sun », that is to say the star in space, we will say 太陽 . タイヨウ. Here, no link with the day of « sunday ».
In the word « Sunday », the first kanji is that of 日 which means « the sun » (with a tiny « s ») in the sense of the ball of light that we see from Earth or day (in speaking of the moment of the day).
So, until then, there is no connection between the day of Sunday and the Sun.
We continue with the Moon. Let’s see again the day of « Monday » :
Monday .
月曜日 .
ゲツヨウび
To say « the Moon », we’ll say 月 . つき. Here too, no link with the day of « Monday ».
Planet Mars now. Let’s see again the day of « Tuesday » :
Tuesday .
火曜日 .
カヨウび
We take the kanji of 火, we add the Sino-Japanese pronunciation of the kanji of « the star », セイ, which gives us the word :
火星 . カセイ → Mars
There, we note a first similarity that we will find in the other days of the week and which will follow the same pattern. As long as I can do that, I can already give you the rest of the list directly from Sunday to Saturday.
Sunday .
日曜日 .
ニチヨウび
→ 太陽 . タイヨウ → The Sun
Monday .
月曜日 .
ゲツヨウび
→ 月 . つき → The Moon
Tuesday .
火曜日 .
カヨウび
→ 火星 . カセイ → March
Wednesday .
水曜日 .
スイヨウび
→ 水星 . スイセイ → Mercury
Thursday .
木曜日 .
モクヨウび
→ 木星 . モクセイ → Jupiter
Friday .
金曜日 .
キンヨウび
→ 金星 . キンセイ → Venus
Saturday .
土曜日 .
ドヨウび
→ 土星 . ドセイ → Saturn
That being done, we continue with the four remaining planets :
天王星 .
テンノウセイ
. Uranus
海王星 .
カイオウセイ
. Neptune
冥王星 .
メイオウセイ
. Pluto
地球 .
チキュウ
. the Earth
This lesson is now finished, I would like to add a little clarification on the kanji 王 (rey/master). First I give you below its Sino-Japanese pronunciation (it has no purely Japanese pronunciation) :
王 .
オウ
You will have noticed that in the name 天王星 . テンノウセイ. Uranus, the kanji 王 is pronounced ノウ but that does not correspond to its Sino-Japanese pronunciation. This is an exceptional case and learn it as it is. It is very rare, it does not obey any precise rule and was surely arranged thus to facilitate the pronunciation.
You find the same case in the word 天皇 . テンノウ which means "Emperor of Japan"; it is also an honorary suffix that is found after the names of the Japanese Emperors.
Introduction