hayaoki wa sanmon no toku lit. ‘getting up early is worth three coins’
Japanese idiom, everyday. People who get up or get started early are the ones who get the best chances.
Draft Not yet checked by a native Japanese speaker.
How do people use 早起きは三文の徳
?
A proverb everyone learns as a child, said by parents, teachers and anyone who’s proud of being up at six. It usually stands alone as a full sentence, or gets quoted with と言うように (“as the saying goes”) before you explain what the early start brought you. Both 徳 and 得 are correct spellings and are read the same way, toku.
Also said 早起きは三文の得, 朝起きは三文の徳
早起きは三文の徳
in real sentences
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早起きは三文の徳。
Hayaoki wa sanmon no toku.
The early bird catches the worm.
Tatoeba, sentence by bunbuku, translation by al_ex_an_der, CC BY 2.0 FR
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早起きは三文の徳と言われるように、早く起きると一日を有効に使える。
Hayaoki wa sanmon no toku to iwareru yō ni, hayaku okiru to ichinichi o yūkō ni tsukaeru.
As the saying about early rising goes, getting up early lets you make good use of the whole day.
Tatoeba, sentence by Gardenia, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does 早起きは三文の徳
come from?
None of the dictionaries I checked (Digital Daijisen and Kotowaza o shiru jiten via Kotobank) give a date for the proverb itself. The coins are real: a mon was the smallest copper coin of old Japan, and Nihon Kokugo Daijiten has 三文 meaning “dirt cheap” in a text from 1672, so the promised reward is deliberately tiny. Japanese Wiktionary points out that 徳 here means profit, which is why it’s the traditional spelling and 得 the newer one.
Mistakes learners make with 早起きは三文の徳
Reading 三文 as “sanbun” because 文 is usually bun (as in 文学, bungaku). In this old money word it’s mon, so the proverb is “sanmon no toku”.
Other Japanese idioms like 早起きは三文の徳
Spot a mistake in 早起きは三文の徳
?
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