NipponDude

Hey guys. I'm a beginner in Japanese. I know very little Japanese, but since I can read kana and first grade kanji I decided to have a bit of fun and to change language settings on some of the programs on my PC. And here's the question - on uTorrent, when the torrent is being downloaded it says this:

ダウンロード中

I can read the word download and the kanji means middle/inside. But both "in the middle of downloading" and "in the process of downloading" would make sense. So I'm kinda confused whether I should read 中 as "chuu" or as "naka" here. So yeah, it's a pretty pointless question but I would appreciate it if someone told me the answer

yugknup

Hello,

Yeah your logic is spot on. When added to a noun base to form a compound word, 中 is read 'chuu' and it means 'during', as in 授業中/jugyou-chuu ("during class") or 'in the midst of' as in your example ダウンロード中/daunroudo-chuu ("downloading").

Also, when added to words for time periods, it is read 'juu' and means 'throughout'
夏休み中/natsuyasumi-juu ("throughout the summer vacation")
And the same applies for places:
日本中/nihon-juu ("throughout Japan")

It is read as 'naka' when it is not part of a compound word. So, for example:
家の中/ie no naka ("the inside of the house")

NipponDude

Thanks a bunch for clearing it up for me!