What is this weird character 々 and how do you read it?

When you’re learning Japanese for a while, you may stumble at this unknown character. “What is this 々 character here?”. You may think of it as a katakana at first since the similarity to マ or タ, but no, it’s not a katakana. It’s a kanji and the way you read it is not important. Why? Because you don’t read it, that’s why 😀

This 々 character has a lot of confusing and complex name which you don’t need to know about. You only need to know that this 々 kanji character marks repetition of the kanji before it. Yes, basically this 々 kanji is a repetition marker!

When you see 々 partnered up with another kanji, you must repeat the kanji before it. But there’s a catch to it. Remember the list of hiragana with quote or dot such as ひ び ぴ ? Some word, when repeated, will have a change of sound. There are no specific formula though, so you just need to memorize the sound change.

Some word doesn’t change such as these below:

段々 dandan: gradually
中々 nakanaka: very
色々 iroiro: various

Some word changes such as these below and you just need to memorize them:

日々 hibi: days, everyday
人々 hitobito: people
時々 tokidoki: sometimes

So why we don’t just repeat the kanji itself? Maybe because it’s simpler this way? Well anyway, now you know how to read this thing when you see it and that’s the only thing that matter! (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧