Konnichiwa Confusion?

[Pandora]

I have been told two different things when writing "konnichiwa". The way I was first taught was to write it as: こんにちわ. Later on, someone else told me it would be written: こんにちは. With the subject particle 'wa', because the phrase itself is the subject of the sentence/phrase. Which way is correct?

 

[Chidoriashi]

I have been told two different things when writing "konnichiwa". The way I was first taught was to write it as: こんにちわ. Later on, someone else told me it would be written: こんにちは. With the subject particle 'wa', because the phrase itself is the subject of the sentence/phrase. Which way is correct?

It should be written こんにちは.

 

[Glenn]

Who taught you to write it こんにちわ?

 

[epigene]

こんにちわ is widely used now, especially among young people and on the Web.

However, it's not "correct." It's not going to earn you points in a test. If you're an adult writing business or formal correspondence, the level of your education in Japanese will be questioned. (If you are Japanese, that is.)

Personally, I would insist on you using こんにちは at all times but would tolerate the わ version as long as you use it with careful attention to the situation. (Such as a forum like this where many of the veteran members are extensively educated in the language.
)

 

[yasuyuki]

Yes, as all members tell you, you should use こんにちは.
There is a reason you should use ha.
This is because こんにちは comes from konnnichi + ha = today + is and this phrase is shorten from "Today is a good day".
Therefore you should use こんにちは. you see?

 

[Pandora]

Ah. I was actually taught to write it with the 'wa' character a long time ago through the Nintendo DS game My Japanese Coach. It lacks in the lesson order as it jumps all over the place, but it does help my grammar, since I have no one to teach it to me as of yet. After a while, I thought it would be written with the 'ha' character because it was more of a phrase. I thought the は character was used as the particle that is pronounced 'wa' but written with the 'ha' character, and is used when saying 'konnichiwa' or 'konban wa' as a topic marker in a short phrase?

 

[nihongoboy]

I have heard lots of students argue about the way it should be. Well the problem is; it is what it is So ha or はis ha but at the end of a word it often is a particle; which is prounounced わ or wa.. So when you type it as an american for example when I type the particle wa I type the ha which is automatically converted to は. Pronounced wa : こんにちは This is correct regardless of what fashion especially if you are graded in language class.

 

[micahcowan]

Pandora, be aware that My Japanese Coach has a rather significant number of errors. こんにちわ would be one of them (though I don't actually remember hitting that).
I bought a copy a while back to evaluate it, and my 10-year-old daughter spent some time with it. You mentioned that you're using it to learn the grammar, and as far as I remember there were no real problems with the grammar from that program; however, it teaches (and forces) you to us incorrect stroke orders for a number of characters, and in the case of some of the kanji, it completely butchers them (山 for instance).
Basically, it's an incredibly great method for learning, but with unfortunately very poor-quality material. It's fine to use, but realize you'll have to relearn some things (and you should especially check your writing against more authoritative materials).