Is 日 "hi" or "ni"?


日 is at the start of "Nihon" (Japan) making me think it means "Ni" but 日 means
Day which is written in romaji as "hi" and pronounced "hi". If 日 has multiple
meanings how am I supposed to read it?




Let's differentiate between "meaning" and "reading". The Kanji 日 has a number
of readings:

> [日暮れ]{ひぐれ} Sunset
>
> [日曜日]{にちようび} Sunday
>
> [本日]{ほんじつ} Today (formal)
>
> [日本]{にほん} Japan, originally にっぽん.
>
> [今日]{きょう} Today (normal)

So here we see six "readings", but only three really matter: ひ、にち、じつ. You can
consider び, に and きょう exceptions (きょう is the original Japanese-origin word for
"today". The Kanji 今日 is verbatim Cantonese, read "gam1 jat6"). We call these
あてじ, meaning Kanji that were just bolted onto some existing Japanese without
following the usual rules.

In terms of _meaning_ , 日 has three meanings: "sun", "day", and more rarely
"Japan". The answer to your original question "how do I know how to read
this?" is "learn more words".

Note that most Kanji are not like this. 日 is rarer in its weirdness. Most
other Kanji stick to the rules, so you'll be able to read things confidently.




Let's differentiate between "meaning" and "reading". The Kanji 日 has a number
of readings:

> [日暮れ]{ひぐれ} Sunset
>
> [日曜日]{にちようび} Sunday
>
> [本日]{ほんじつ} Today (formal)
>
> [日本]{にほん} Japan, originally にっぽん.
>
> [今日]{きょう} Today (normal)

So here we see six "readings", but only three really matter: ひ、にち、じつ. You can
consider び, に and きょう exceptions (きょう is the original Japanese-origin word for
"today". The Kanji 今日 is verbatim Cantonese, read "gam1 jat6"). We call these
あてじ, meaning Kanji that were just bolted onto some existing Japanese without
following the usual rules.

In terms of _meaning_ , 日 has three meanings: "sun", "day", and more rarely
"Japan". The answer to your original question "how do I know how to read
this?" is "learn more words".

Note that most Kanji are not like this. 日 is rarer in its weirdness. Most
other Kanji stick to the rules, so you'll be able to read things confidently.

