17756
My dictionary says 今日{きょう} is a special reading. My textbook presents it in
the third lesson, so I'm guessing it's a normal pronunciation. So... what's
the difference between 今日{こんにち} and 今日{きょう}?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-07-10T11:40:41.503
17752
2016-08-06T07:02:01.687
2016-08-06T07:02:01.687
11104
5423
question
word-choice words
Difference between こんにち and きょう
To see that 今日{きょう} is a special reading, you need to look in a kanji
dictionary.

[「きょ」 is not listed as a possible reading of
「今」.](http://jisho.org/kanji/details/%E4%BB%8A)  
[「う」 is not listed as a possible reading of
「日」.](http://jisho.org/kanji/details/%E6%97%A5)

「今日」 is a 熟字訓{じゅくじくん} which is best explained [in the wikipedia entry for
"kanji".](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanji#Special_readings)
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-07-10T12:03:12.633
17753
2014-07-10T12:03:12.633
4835
17752
answer
Both means _today_ , but the meaning depends on the pronunciation.

きょう refers to the day after yesterday, the day before tomorrow.

> 今日【きょう】は雨【あめ】が降【ふ】っています。 It's raining today.

こんにち means _present age_ , _nowadays_ , or _these days_.

> 今日【こんにち】の若者【わかもの】は新聞【しんぶん】を読【よ】まない。 Young people of today do not read
> newspapers.

This difference is rather strict; basically you can't expect they're
interchangeable. I recommend that you memorize how to use きょう first, because
こんにち is less common.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-07-10T14:43:13.753
17756
2014-07-10T14:43:13.753
5010
17752
answer