* Out of respect for Mickey's friends, Pluto is included in this list
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The shortcut for remembering the planets in Japanese is:
A few points:
- Each planet (except for Earth) ends with 星 which means planet. The stand-alone kun reading for “planet” is 「ほし」.
- Like the days of the week in Japanese, the first few planets (except earth) use the elements water, gold, fire, wood, and dirt.
- The last three planets (if you deny Pluto its planet-ship, then the last two planets…), are king planets 王星.
- Mouse over or tap any kanji to see the furigana.
水星
Mercury
It’s the closest to the Sun, but despite the name, there is no water 水.
金星
Venus
Venus shines in the sky like gold 金.
地球
Earth
If you are reading this, chances are you are a 地球人 (earthling).
火星
Mars
The Martians try to destroy earth with fire 火.
木星
Jupiter
Think of the Redwood forest with the huge trees 木 (the normal kun reading is 「き」.
土星
Saturn
In English, “Saturn” starts with "Satur". In Japanese, the first kanji is also the same as the day of the week: 土曜日
天王星
Uranus
You say "Your highness" before the king of heaven 天.
海王星
Neptune
Neptune was the king of the sea 海 (the normal kun reading is 「うみ」.
冥王星
Pluto
Pluto was the god of the underworld or Hades. In Japanese, Hades is called 冥界.
Other Related Vocabulary
太陽
the Sun
宇宙
Outer space; the universe
天文学
astronomy
惑星
planet
[notice, it has the same kanji as most of the planet names]
天の川
The Milky Way
[This has two somewhat irregular readings. Remember it is 「あま」 and not 「てん」 and the river is 「がわ」]
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And here is a quick recap chart:
水星 | すいせい | Mercury | Closest to the Sun so there is no water 水 |
金星 | きんせい | Venus | Venus shines in the sky like gold |
地球 | ちきゅう | Earth | You are a 地球人 |
火星 | かせい | Mars | The Martians try to destroy earth with fire |
木星 | もくせい | Jupiter | Think of the Redwood forest with the huge trees |
土星 | どせい | Saturn | Saturn starts with "Satur"' just like Saturday (土曜日) |
天王星 | てんのうせい | Uranus | You say "Your highness" before the king |
海王星 | かいおうせい | Neptune | Neptune was the king of the sea (海) |
冥王星 | めいおうせい | Pluto | Pluto, the god of the underworld or hades, is called 冥界in Japanese |
This video is very old and the audio is choppy. We redid it with the video above, but I'll leave it here just for nostalgia. If you can't get through it, the information is above.
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There is a typo for Uranus? The romaji is tenousei but the hiragana is てんのうせい.
The hiragana reads te n o u se i, there is nothing wrong with it?
It’s the んの that’s the issue. Technically, it should be “tennousei”. Unfortunately, I don’t have a way to fix the video, but it’s best to not rely on romaji anyway.
But this is a little tricky. Normally 王 is おう, but often, for ease of speech, when a ん is followed by an お, it becomes んの as in Uranus.
I’ll have to look this up more and make a lesson out of it. The only other word that comes to mind is the (Christian) Trinity: 三位一体【さんみいったい】. It ought to be 「さんい」 but when a vowel follows a ん, it often adds a consonant (“n” or “m,” as in this case). I’m sure there are many more examples of this.