I was learning vocabulary and I came across こんにちは (what is supposed to be read like konnichiWA) I just can't understand why is used は (Ha) instead of わ (Wa)
I mean, the pronunciation is konnichiWA, not konichiHA
So why in the world is not used わ? Can someone explain to me？
Same goes to こんばんは, whyyy its read Wa if its written Ha 😫
は is special! It's the only hiragana that can be read two ways.
So, if it is part of a word, it is read as ha, like はな (flower),
If it is the topic particle は (as in, わたし は マイコー です), it's read as wa.
So, why is こんにちは and こんばんは written that way? Well, these are greetings, and they literally mean "today is", or "this evening is". My guess is that is a shortened form of something like "how is today?" that was used a long time ago, and got trimmed to こんにちは.
So it is actually the topic particle marking the time (today, or this evening).
