Frequently asked questions about confusing Japanese koi words. ”koi” becomes “goi” in certain words such as Nishikigoi, tategoi, Benigoi, “Koromo” becomes “goromo” in Aigoromo and Budogoromo. This happens a lot in the Japanese language.
There are voiceless sounds and voiced sounds in Japanese, some specific voiceless sounds would turn into voiced sounds under certain conditions, there are rules of sound change but let’s skip the complicated explanation here and focus on koi words frequently used.
Some Examples of Japanese Koi Words:
[koi こい→goi ごい]
Nishikigoi
tategoi
oyagoi
[koromo ころも→goromo ごろも]
Aigoromo
Budogoromo
[kiwa きわ→giwa ぎわ]
kamisorigiwa
ushirogiwa
[sumi すみ→zumi ずみ]
tsubozumi
atozumi
[sashi さし→zashi ざし]
maezashi
Basically if you have something in front of “koi” “koromo” “sumi”, their sounds will change. (You can see little dashes in Japanese hiragana when sounds change. Called voiced consonant mark)
Learn more Koi words, please refer to our Koi Glossary.
