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人人人・ひと、にん、じん | Person, Person, Person

Hey guys, it’s been a while! I finished submitting my last assignment for this semester of my TESOL course and am on holidays until the 26th of February! Today, at the request of @rumade (thank you very much for your suggestion ♡) we’re going to be talking about the 人 kanji and its many different uses and meanings!

人・ひと：
The word ひと means ‘person’ and can be used by itself or in combination with other kanji characters to create different words related to people or persons. A few examples include;

• 人々・ひとびと・People/persons.
• 小人・こびと・Little person/dwarf.
• 人質・ひとじち・Hostage.
• 人殺し・ひとごろし・Murderer.

It can also be used in conjunction with pronouns to say “this person”;

• この人・このひと・This person.
• その人・そのひと・That person.
• あの人・あのひと・That person over there.
• どの人・どのひと・What kind of person?

人・にん：
The word にん also means ‘persons’. One of the biggest differences between ひと, にん, and じん is that ひと is the Japanese reading of the character (referred to as the kun-yomi / written as 訓読み・くんよみ) and にん and じん are the Chinese readings of the character (referred to as the on-yomi / written as 音読み・おんよみ).

While ひと is the general word for ‘people’, にん is often used as a counter for people or can be used at the end of a word to represent an action, as in “a person who does (something)”.

A few examples include;

• 人気・にんき・Popular.
• 人間・にんげん・Human.
• 三人・さんにん・Three people.
• 使用人・しようにん・Employee.
• 支配人・しはいにん・Manager.

人・じん：
The word じん also means ‘person’ and can be used similarly to にん at the start of a word to mean something related to people. A few examples include;

• 人生・じんせい・Life.
• 人口・じんこう・Population.
• 人種・じんしゅ・Human race.

When used at the end of a word, じん often means an attribute of a person. A few examples include;

• 美人・びじん・Pretty woman.
• 有名人・ゆうめいじん・Famous person.
• 老人・ろうじん・Old person.

The じん reading of the character is also used after country names to create nationalities such as;

• オーストラリア人・Australian.
• 日本人・Japanese person.
• アメリカ人・American.

Remember:

• When used independently to mean person, it is read as ひと.
• When 人 is used in conjunction with other characters it is likely to be read as にん orじん.
• There’s no rule really to explain the difference between にん orじん when they appear at the beginning of a word, you kind of just have to memorise the reading.
• When it comes to counting people, the kanji is always read as にん (with two exceptions being “1 person = 一人・ひとり” and “2 persons = 二人・ふたり”.
• When it comes to nationalities, it is always read as じん.

Please let me know if you guys would like a post regarding the difference between the kun and on-yomi and when to use the different readings. Best of luck with your studies guys!