Word of the Day #22

Summer's coming up and it's time to let people know how you're feeling! I'm late giving you new Words of the Day and I'm going to make it up to you with two new Japanese words that will help you out this summer!


The two Words of the Day are "hot" and "hot". 

Now I'm sure you're thinking, "Those are the same word." And in English you would be right. However, in Japanese, there are two different characters used to express "hot" which just so happen to be pronounced the same way. Let's take a look at the first one.

あつい

atsui

This character is used to express the feeling of heat and is most commonly used to say

I feel hot / 私は暑いです。

This is not used for things which a literally hot. Another example which can confuse people is 

Today is hot / 今日は暑いです。

A day cannot be literally hot. It is a measurement of time. "I" also can't be hot. It's a concept of self identification. However, your head can be hot.

あつい

atsui

The easiest way to remember the difference between these two characters is thinking of the first one as "feels hot" and this one as "is hot." Here's an example:

My head is hot / 私の頭は熱いです。

This character is only used on things which can literally become hot.

I really hope this helped you understand when to use each "hot." It's really impressive to see non-Japanese people using these characters correctly. Keep up the studying and enjoy the summer!