[ファブリス]

Talking of 鯉のぼり ...

皆に見える様に飾りますが、今は
鯉のぼりをあまり見ません。

I often see " 様に " in Japanese emails.. do you read it ように　or さまに ?
I'd say ように　but よう is the onyomi...

Another random tidbit, there are a few things I don't know how to read
for example, a date or number interval :

２～３日

How do you pronounce that ? (eg. 普段は２～３日かかります。)

(sidenote: I've been using 二三日 a bit but it doesn't seem common).

I often fall into the trap of thinking onyomi readings are only found in compounds.

In this case, I'd say you're correct in reading 様に as ように。

As for the second question, it's read にさんにちかかります。

It's definitely ように. Take a look in a text book or a grammar book about the grammatical structure

potential form + ように

ファブリス Wrote:I often see " 様に " in Japanese emails.. do you read it ように　or さまに ?
I'd say ように　but よう is the onyomi...

As wrightak said, ように. 様に is just the kanji for the normal, frequently occurring ように. Hiragana is much more common for it now, though.

ファブリス Wrote:Another random tidbit, there are a few things I don't know how to read

I would like to take this opportunity to complain about a somewhat tangential reading-related issue: all the verbs in Japanese with same kanji and okurigana, but with slightly different meaning and a different reading for the kanji. For example, 埋める has うずめる and うめる. These are really annoying because unless you frequently read stuff with furigana, you can easily fail to realize that it is actually a different word. Even once you realize the distinction exists, it can be hard to figure when it becomes which word, or how to read specific instances you see.

A general rule is that kanji is used instead of hiragana when the writing is more formal. For example, in business, I often get emails that say 有難う御座います rather than ありがとうございます.

wrightak Wrote:A general rule is that kanji is used instead of hiragana when the writing is more formal. For example, in business, I often get emails that say 有難う御座います rather than ありがとうございます.

..or when the writer is trying to show off. I remember an example on the forum from one of the "write in Japanese" threads where a poster put literally everything in kanji. Knowing when not to use kanji is equally as important as knowing the kanji for a word you want to write, if you are to write naturally.