66516
Is 年月 (months and years) read 【としつき】or【ねんげつ】? Is there a difference? I found
it in the following sentence in WWWJDIC:

年月が過ぎるのは早い。
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-09T07:02:40.267
66506
2019-12-02T12:37:31.480
2019-04-10T03:20:07.897
31150
question
wago-and-kango multiple-readings
Is 年月 (months and years) read 【としつき】or【ねんげつ】and is there a difference?
年月 is read as both としつき and ねんげつ. It means "a long time". There is no
difference that I know. Every entries on
[Kotobank](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%B9%B4%E6%9C%88-583449#E7.B2.BE.E9.81.B8.E7.89.88.20.E6.97.A5.E6.9C.AC.E5.9B.BD.E8.AA.9E.E5.A4.A7.E8.BE.9E.E5.85.B8)
show both readings to have the same meaning.

The sentence 年月が過ぎるのは早い means "Time flies so fast".
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-09T20:26:45.157
66513
2019-04-09T20:26:45.157
10636
66506
answer
There certainly is a difference in nuance and therefore, how the two readings
are used in real life if not in their basic "dictionary" meaning. Frankly,
there would not exist two completely different readings if there were no
difference between the two in the first place.

「ねんげつ」 tends to sound more formal, academic, technical, etc., which are the
characteristics of **on-reading** words.

「としつき」 tends to sound more informal, personal, intuitive, emotional, poetic,
etc., which are often the characteristics of **kun-reading** words.

In the sentence 「年月が過{す}ぎるのは早{はや}い。」, 「年月」 can be read either way. It is the
larger context from which the speaker/author decides which reading to use.

Other examples of these "word pairs":

・「ぼくじょう」vs.「まきば」 for 「牧場」 "ranch"

・「みょうにち」vs.「あした」 for 「明日」 "tomorrow"

・「ざいにん」vs.「つみびと」 for 「罪人」 "criminal"

・「しゅんかしゅうとう」vs.「はるなつあきふゆ」 for 「春夏秋冬」 "the four seasons"

Finally, a couple of kanji compounds where their meanings will actually change
rather drastically depending on how they are read:

「人気」:

It means "popularity" when read 「にんき」, but it means "signs of life" when read
「ひとけ」. Thus, the simple sentence 「X島は人気がない。」 can mean both:

1) "X Island is not popular (as a place to visit)." and

2) "（Almost）no one lives on X Island."

「色紙」:

When read 「しきし」, it refers to an **extra-thick white-colored** paper on which
one asks a "famous" person to sign an autograph.

When read 「いろがみ」, it means " **thin colored paper** " used often in origami.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-10T01:16:12.557
66516
2019-12-02T12:37:31.480
2019-12-02T12:37:31.480
66506
answer