Water in Japanese
Forgive me for the English, I am writing from the university. This is an answer to Shinobi's question. Actually, this is a little complicated. The charchter for water is ?, both is Japanese and in Chinese. In Japanese, every charchter can be pronounced at least in two ways- a Japanese way, and a Chinese way (which is not really a Chinese pronounciation, but something closer). The charchter for water, is pronounced as Mizu in Japanese pronounciation, and as Sui in Chinese pronounciation. Both pronounciations are very common in everyday Japanese. Usually, when it is water alone, just water, it will be pronounced as Mizu. When it is in a compound, like, for example, in the word moisture- Suibun, or in the word precipiation- kosui, it will be pronounced in the Chinese way, sui. So Mizu will be usually water alone, and Sui- a certain kind of water. Also, if you want to refer to water alone, you should be aware of something interesting. Mizu is only cold water, that is intended to stay cold. If you want to refer to hot water, or to water which are now cold, but will be boiled later, as water for tea, you cannot say Mizu, but you must say Yu- which means hot water, and this is written by another charchter- ? I think that this phenomenon, that charchters can be pronounced at least in two ways, is one of the hardest problems in the Japanese language. In Chinese, at least, every charchter is pronounced in one way only..