Comments for 月

今日 は 月曜日 です。

(kyo wa getsuyoubi desu)

getsuyoubi = getsu (月) - yoo (曜) - bi (日) = Monday

getsu (月) = moon, also abbreviation for Monday

yoo (曜) = day of the week

hi (bi) (日) = day

Isnt it that getsu is moon and gatsu is month? Why is it written the other way?

I think getsu and gatsu are both month; tsuki is moon. Though of course there is overlap, just as there is in English ("many moons ago"). And then there's Luna, and lunar... and lunatic?

"full moon" is "mangetsu", though, not "mantsuki".

To my knowledge, "gatsu" is only employed when saying the proper names of the months.

For example:

"hachigatsu" = August (8月)

 "sangatsu" = March (3月)

but "sangetsu" would literally translate to "3 month".

>>> To count out 3 months you will add a little "ke" (ヶ) in the middle (but pronounce it as "ka" since the "ichi-ni-san" counting method is in use)

"sankagetsu" (3ヶ月)

Tunis is a good snapshot of some Japanese language v learning issues.one character with multiple meanings and pronunciations.

あすま wrote on Tuesday the 21st of March 2017 at 12:57 AM

Isnt it that getsu is moon and gatsu is month? Why is it written the other way?

Generally, つき is moon and げつ/がつ is month.

Between げつ and がつ, がつ is used more often.  I think the reason for げつ in some words (long story short) is based on the flow on the word.  It's similar* to how the "cata" in "catastrophe" and "catastrophic", or the "photo" in "photograph" and "photographer", are pronounced differently in English. 

*I know there are different reasons (mostly different linguistic rules) as to why げつ/がつ are pronounced compared to the English examples I gave.  I'm just trying to give a simple explanation that makes sence to everyone without going all-in on linguistics and making it more confusing than it needs to be.