Words to practice for today:
| 服（ふく） clothes | 河豚（ふぐ） blowfish |
| 踏む（ふむ） step on | 降る（ふる） fall, as in snow, rain |
| 普通（ふつう） normal, normally | 府（ふ） prefecture, for Kyoto and Osaka |
| 古い（ふるい） old | 鱶鰭スープ（ふかひれすーぷ） shark's fin soup |
Hiragana for Day 38
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ふ is
pronounced /fu/.
「ふ」はは行hagyouの３番目（さんばんめ）のかなです。は行はひらがなの６（ろく）行目です。
Words to practice for today:
|
半濁点（はんだくてん） make ふ into ぷ /pu/. On regular type on word processors and computers, the 半濁点 is difficult to see; context and the different angle are the main ways to tell. In bigger type, books and other publications, it is clear: ぷ.
Why is ふ /fu/ and not /hu/? I believe it is closer to a /hu/ in general, actually. The teeth never touch the lip, but still it is harsher than a simple /h/. There is some variation among Japanese speakers, too.
In the final analysis, most Anglophones and 研究者の kenkyuusha-no New Japanese-English Dictionary (新和英大辞典しんわえいだいしてん） uses the /fu/. Because The Chicago Manual of Style gives their dictionary as the authority for ローマ字 (Romanization), at least in the U.S., /fu/ is the law of the land.
Vocabulary notes
服（ふく） is the most standard word of the many words for clothes. 衣類（いるい） is a more fancy word. 衣（ころも） is mainly a dead word still found in certain expressions. 洋服（ようふく） means Western clothing, 和服（わふく） is Japanese clothing as does 呉服（ごふく）. The suffix -物（もの） can be added to a season to mean clothes for (a season).
| 婦人服（ふじんふく） | lady's clothing |
| 紳士服（しんしふく） | gentlemen's clothing |
| 春物（はるもの） | clothes for spring |
| 夏物（なつもの） | clothes for summer |
| 秋物（あきもの） | clothes for autumn |
| 冬物（ふゆもの） | clothes for winter |
| 衣替え（ころもがえ） | clothes changing (the day when students and workerschange from one seaons's clothing to another) |
| 子供服（こどもふく） | children's clothing |
河豚（ふぐ） is the name of the deadly fish that is so expensive. It is the liver that contains the poison and the preparation is very delicate. Licensing of 河豚 preparers is strictly regulated. A few deaths occur every year due to eating 河豚, but it is said that those are usually due to people preparing it at home. The strong poison is located in the liver. A skilled 河豚 preparer will leave just the tiniest bit in the fish, so as to leave a tingling sensation in the mouth.
The past tense of 踏む（ふむ） is 踏んだ（ふんだ） and want to step on is 踏みたい（ふみたい）.
The past tense of 降る（ふる） is 降った（ふった）. As in English, "It wants to rain/snow" does not make sense, but it would be 降りたい（ふりたい）.
| 雨が降る（あめがふる） | it rains | 雨が降っている（あめがふっている） | it's raining |
| 雪が降る（ゆきがふる） | it snows | 雪が降っている（ゆきがふっている） | it's snowing |
| 雹が降る（ひょうがふる） | it hails | 雹が降っている（ひょうがふっている） | it's hailing |
普通電車（ふつうでんしゃ）, normal train is a local train.
There are forty-seven prefectures in Japan. The prefecture is the level of government below the national level. Of these, there are forty-three 県（けん）, two 府（ふ）, one 道（どう） and one 都（と）. 京都府（きょうとふ） and 大阪府（おおさかふ） are the fu, 北海道（ほっかいどう） is the dou, and 東京都（とうきょうと） is the to. Note that 東京 is a prefecture, the government capital, not a city. Within 東京都, there are wards 区(く）, cities 市（し）, towns 町（ちょう） and a village 村（そん）.
For a map of Japan from the 漢字, click here. Clicking the area will give a detailed map with the romanized spelling.
For a listing of the prefectures, and links, click here.
An English map that takes a long time to load but lists important cities is here.
鱶鰭スープ（ふかひれすーぷ） is a delicacy. Shark is normally 鮫（さめ） and 鰭（ひれ） is fin, but for soup, it is ふかひれ.
スープ is pronounced suupu, borrowed from the English soup. For words borrowed from other languages, 片仮名（かたかな） is used instead of the 平仮名（ひらがな） we've been learning. Each 平仮名（ひらがな） has a corresponding 片仮名（かたかな） that is pronounced the same. For long vowels, the 伸ばし棒（のばしぼう） "ー" is used.
Copyright 12/02/98 Benjamin Barrett
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