Hey, quick question here. I saw a phrase 2~3日くらいだ in a tweet which I finally understood thanks to bunpro. How do you say it though? It’s “2 to 3 days” in English, but what is this “to” in Japanese?
I would guess ”ににちか、さんにちくらいだ” but i am probably wrong.
I would say
ふつかからみっかくらいだ
The ~ is usually read から, and you don’t need a まで after the second option (here 三日), it’s implicit.
I see, thanks!
Note that without the ~, it would be にさんにち、ie “2 or 3 days”, instead of “2 to 3 days”.
hmm… isn’t your reading implying it is from second to third day of the month? 一日 and 三日 have two different readings and meanings I believe.
Yes sorry my initial post is wrong.
So it’s most likely にからさんにち
edit : actually not even sure. Wow I’m really confused right now ahah.
三日 by itself definitely does not have two different readings, only 一日 has. But in this context I’m not sure whether it could be read さんにち as in にさんにち。
I love how simple Japanese is
Ok makes sense. So I was confused by the ~ but it doesn’t make a difference.
Hmm… How you would read 2~10日くらいだ then? Without making it into 20日くらいだ.
@MacFinch @Fixio @Flame
It would be:
ふつかからとおかくらいだ
You can think of にさんにち as a phrase. In other cases, read ~ as から, as you have said
I hope it helps
@MacFinch @Fixio @Flame
By the way, if the range is wide (like in this case) people are more likely to use phrases like 下旬、中旬、上旬.
So: 1月初旬 for example would mean from 1st of April til the 10th.
That make sense, but i still don’t get why you change reading from 音読み to 訓読み. I was under the impression that in this case 訓読み readings were reserved to count days of the month, and 音読み to count days as period of time. Have i got it wrong?
Apart from set phrases (as mrnoone pointed out) like にさんにち, and the exception of 一日 which is kunyomi when it refers to first day of the month and onyomi when it refers to a period of 1 day, in all other cases I think it’s always the same reading whether it’s the day of the month or a period of time.
五日 would always be read いつか and never ごにち. A 間 can be appended to emphasize a period of time, so in this case 五日間 (いつかかん).