ji and ji

[spacegirl92]

in the ten-ten letters there's the 's' to 'z' row:
za ji zu ze zo
and there's the 't' to 'd' row:
da ji zu de do

my question is how do you know when to use which "ji"?

[Kates]

Most often the s-ji is used: じ for reasons that may even be a mystery to the Japanese!

The t-ji: ぢ is rarely used... and actually... I can't think of a single word that I've learned in my four years that uses ぢ. (I'm sure someone can come along and prove me wrong on this, that it IS actually used--not that I doubt it is.) So ぢ is very rarely used, I imagine.

If you are writing a word and need to write JI, I'd say that safely, 9 times out of 10, you're going to use じ.

[spacegirl92]

arigatou gozaimasu

[skrhgh3b]

words that use ぢ:

http://www2.alc.co.jp/ejr/index.php?word_in=%82%C0&word_in2=%82%A9%82%AB%82%AD%82%AF%82%B1&word_in3=PVawEWi72JXCKoa0Je