Monday, February 11, 2008

幾 - HOW MUCH Thread, Little Man?


Readings & Meanings:

いく



how many, some

Common Usage:

幾つ

幾ら

幾何

Examples:

年は幾つですか?

イクラ幾ら?

幾何のクラスをとる。

Translations:

How old/how many years?

How much for the fish roe?

I'll take geometry class.

Bonus:

Wow, check this kanji out. We've got double thread radicals 幺 (as seen in 糸).

We've got 人 in the bottom left.

And we've got our newly-learned spear radical, 戈, cutting this kanji in half.

So unless you're honest about the AMOUNT (幾) of thread you're selling, people are gonna get cut.

Important:

As a general rule, don't use this kanji for いくら and いくつ. I think it's cool to know where the hiragana came from, but it's mainly academic knowledge. Common use dictates that you should write "how many" and "how much" in hiragana.

References:

http://www.thejapanesepage.com/kanji/kanji/i.htm

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