Arigatou - kanji or kana?

[Sp3ctre18]

Hello there, first post here. I'm glad I came upon this site, the free feeds are great, and now I decided to try out one month of the basic sub. I think I found the best way to learn Japanese "on my own."

So, I looked up one of the kanji for Arigatou （有）on this site: http://www.saiga-jp.com/kanji_dictionary.html

It said that arigatou (I assume) is usually written out in hiragana.

Is this true? I should remember to write "arigatou" as ありがとう　and not　有り難う?

thank you.

[Belton]

Usually it is written in kana rather than kanji.
However it is a stylistic decision and could be written in kanji if you want. This may give a more old-fashioned feeling though.
I'd guess learners of Japanese have a preference for kanji (and kanji words over loanwords) because somehow it feels more authentic. But it might not be the most natural looking choice.

I'd believe your dictionary on these guidance notes.

Also on a quick Google to see a rough idea of relative numbers of usage
ありがとう　112 million　
有り難う　　17.7 million　
有難う　　　15.6 million

There is an old thread on kana versus kanji here you might be interested in
http://www.japanesepod101.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=474

[Javizy]

The first result your conversion software displays should be the most common written form of the word, unless it's a word with multiple homonyms. In other words, if you press space and the word is still written in kana, then it's probably rarely written in kanji. A lot of beginners seem to love the spacebar, but it makes you look very unnatural.

[Sp3ctre18]

thank you very much for the replies.

I guess i'll write it as kana then. This started because of Survival Phrases #1, and they wrote down arigatou as 有り難う。　In fact, when I type arigatou with the language set to Japanese (I'm using Windows Vista), that kanji version shows up first on the spacebar hit, wile the kana-only version comes second.

However, just as Belton pointed out, doing a google search shows it written out in kana most of the time. Even google images.

[Javizy]

That's probably because you've been using the kanji. A lot of these converters order them according to how often you use them.

[Sp3ctre18]

I'm pretty sure this was the first time, but I guess it just depends how many times it has to be before Windows decides to swtich it.

I just typed arigatou in hiragana and left it that way 5 times, and just like you said, now the kana form is No. 1.

interesting; I didn't know that before.