The vocabulary course of the day focuses on the names of the boats. We are therefore going to focus here on the maritime domain. Before we start, I already show you the kanji of "boat", it’s this one, 船, and you will find it in almost all the vocabulary words that we will see here. As long as I do, I give you below its purely Japanese pronunciation and its Sino-Japanese pronunciation :
船 . ふね . セン
Also note that there is another kanji with the same meaning and the same pronunciations but which would be used more often to designate small boats, although this differentiation is only possible in writing. It’s about this kanji, 舟. I give you below its purely Japanese pronunciation and its Sino-Japanese pronunciation which are exactly the same as the first one :
舟 . ふね . セン
So you have thirty-four vocabulary words waiting for you below. Learn them by heart as always and pay attention to the few comments that I leave for you in the conclusion. We will see later another vocabulary course, just as dense as this one, where we will do a little recap on most of the kanji that you are already supposed to know elsewhere, and where you will discover other very similar kanji... But it will be for next time.
Now that this introduction is done, I’ll leave you with the vocabulary words. Of course, you have several words taken from English and I hope you will be able to recognize them. As long as you know your katakana, there will be no problem.
船 .
ふね
. the boat
大船 .
おおぶね
. the big boat
帆 .
ほ
. the sail
帆船 .
ハンセン
. the sailboat
モーターボート
. the motor boat
セールボート
. the sailboat
トロール船 .
トロールセン
. the trawler
トローリングボート
. the trolling boat
コンテナ船 .
コンテナセン
. the container ship
コンテナ
. the container
クルーザー
. the cruise ship, the cruiser
クルーズ船 .
クルーズセン
. the cruise ship, the cruiser
船旅 .
ふなたび
. the boat trip
ボートトリップ
. the boat trip
船長 .
センチョウ
. the captain of a ship (non-honorary title)
船員 .
センイン
. the sailor
郵船 .
ユウセン
. the postal boat, the mail boat
郵便船 .
ユウビンセン
. the postal boat, the mail boat
メールボート
. the mail boat
船室 .
メールボート
. the boat cabin
船灯 .
セントウ
. the lanterns, the lights of a boat
船窓 .
センソウ
. the porthole
灯台 .
トウダイ
. the lighthouse
灯火 .
ともしび
. the light, the lamp
柱 .
はしら
. the pillar, the column
帆柱 .
ほばしら / マスト
. the mast
舟 .
ふね
. the boat (small)
川舟 .
かわぶね
. the barge, the river boat
小舟 .
こぶね
. the little boat
丸木舟 / 丸木船 .
まるきぶね
. the canoe
カタマラン
. the catamaran
艀 .
はしけ
. the barge (often written in hiragana)
A new list of vocabulary words ends. Before leaving you, I would like to draw your attention to the kanji 灯 which by itself already means "light" / "lamp") whose I give you the purely and Sino-Japanese pronunciation below :
灯 . ひ / ともし . トウ
If you have learned your kanji well so far, you will have noticed that the kanji 灯 has a purely Japanese pronunciation similar to the kanji of fire, 火 which is also pronounced ひ. Moreover, if you observe the kanji 灯, well, you will notice that it contains in key the kanji of fire 火 on the far left. Two kanji, the same purely Japanese pronunciation, one means "fire, flame", the other means "light, lamp". Maybe it can help you memorize them.
The word 灯台 . トウダイ can also be used as a suffix of lighthouse names. The only exception is the lighthouse of Alexandria where you have to use the particle の.
I would also like to draw your attention to the word 丸木舟 . まるきぶね which means "the canoe". This word is made up of the kanji 丸 . まる which means "the circle" or "the point"; of the kanji 木 . き which means "the tree" or "the wood" and the kanji 舟 / 船 . ふね which means "the boat". Knowing that 丸木 . まるき means "the log" or even "the tree trunk", a canoe is therefore "a boat made from a tree trunk". Now you understand why the Japanese say 丸木舟 . まるきぶね.
In the word トロール船, you have in katakana トロール which comes from the English "troll" so we got the word "trawler" in English. You also have トローリングボート from the english "trolling boat" which is a synonym.
Just before closing this lesson, I’ll give you the number classifier for boats. Here it is with its Sino-Japanese pronunciation :
隻 . セキ (suffix used to count the number of boats/ships)
This course is now over. As usual, take your time to learn and remember this new vocabulary and no need to rush. The best advice I can give you is to learn gradually. Take the first ten words, focus on them for a whole day, then add another five the next day, and review them all, then repeat the following days until you remember them all. From time to time, go back to previous vocabulary courses to review the words we have already seen. It is always essential to refresh your memory.
Good luck.
Introduction