I’m pretty new (only on level 5), and I’m running into a frustrating issue. I can’t seem to get it straight when words do/do not end in う.
Is there any kind of rule for this? I thought initially that う might have specified a specific kind of grammatical function, but then I kept learning words that did not end in う that I thought would have, and vice versa.
Learn hiragana first?
I don’t quite understand, these are words, it’s a bit like saying that you don’t understand when a word should end in t or not.
る rU う
く kU う
む mU う
is this what you mean? or do you mean the difference grammatically between う and る grammatically?
When you type out the answers, if the last letter you press is a U last then surely it ends in う no? even if you type りょう (ryoU) you’re pressing u last.
If it’s simple the first case, then Tofugu has a great guide on learning Hiragana here. This is what I personally used to learn it.
For Ru verb vs U verb I’m not sure, I haven’t got there yet grammar wise, but there are lots of resources on it such as bunpro, or youtube here is a vid for example.
IIRC, the mnemonics tend to use distinct things for long vowels and short vowels. So きょ is distinguished from きょう by a different recurring mnemonic element. しょ from しょう in the same way, and so on. At least, that’s how I remember it working. That is WaniKani’s way to help you keep short and long vowels separate.
But as others said, it’s a bit like asking how to remember the difference between bed and bead. Like… they’re just different words and you will get used to it over time.
My way of remembering these, is to either miraculously remember it first time, or to get it wrong until SRS makes me get it right hah.
I think I should have been a bit clearer in my post. I’m talking about during reviews, when presented with the kanji (for instance) こ (child) vs こう (old), I can recall that both are said “ko,” but I cannot recall whether it is “ko” or “kou” (sorry for the romaji).
Another instance would be しょ and しょう. I know that they are different, but they don’t “sound” different to me and the mnemonics don’t necessarily differentiate the two. Any thoughts?
One thing you can do is always listen to the pronounciation, those should sound different. Also, try to lean heavily on the mnemonics for the first few reviews. Over time it will be easier
This is really down to remembering the difference.
It’s like Leebo said, the difference between Boy and Bouy, it’s just a matter of learning them, that’s how I’ve done it at least.
@Gorbit99 has a good point, they do sound different. I got confused with 女 at first when I started I always wrote it as じょう. But it’s a short o sound, where as こう is always a longer sound. Doesn’t help that with words like Tokyo in English it’s a single O while in the vocab it’s Toukyou 東京 in these instances I would just say you have to remember it.
Learners often have difficulty recognizing and producing the difference between the long and short vowels. It’s one of the hallmarks of a foreign accent in Japanese. So, it’s definitely not something unique to you. My teacher would clap out words kana by kana when I first started.
ここ (meaning “here”) is clap clap
こうこう (meaning “high school”) is clap clap clap clap (where ー represents lengthening the “oh” sound of こ)
Listening and breaking them down like this to start might help.
In mnemonics for こ, they use 子, child, as the recurrent element. In mnemonics for こう, they use こういち, who is the creator of this site. To be fair, that’s not the easiest one to remember the difference as a new user, since you don’t know Koichi, but it’s easier with time. All the other short vs. long ones have a similar distinction in the character or element used.
You are very good at explaining things 
initially you get them wrong until the a-ha moment gets stuck in your mind, that’s what the srs will do its own thing.
I remember only around lvl 8 or 9 I started differentiating those specially しょ and しょう, ぼ and ぼう.
Kou is usually having the mnemonic of Kouichi. 子, you can think of a child Kouichi, that’s why there is no う at the end.
きょ is little kyoto, きょう, is kyoto
Also since you can’t differentiate, I recommend watching youtube videos on pronunciation, I don’t want to assume but you’re probably pronouncing Japanese in a very western accent, it’s important to know the difference, even if it’s hard for you to pronounce it.
I’ll try and explain though, if it has a う then it’s kind of like adding a “W” at the end of a word, exaggerate it a bit like “Show”, it’s a long “O”
What helped me the most was listening to the pronunciations in the reading section of the mnemonic a lot and then trying to say the word to myself (in my head) when called upon to write the reading. Not only is the duration of the sound longer, but the shorter ones feel snappier, more clipped. I’m not sure exactly how to say it, but it was hearing it, not memorizing the reading, that made it much easier for me.
For example, if you listen to the pronunciation for 東京 (とうきょう), the syllables sound long and drawn out, whereas if you listen to the one for 京都 (きょうと), the と at the end is clipped.
This is exactly what I was going to recommend! That’s how I got used to the difference back when I first started learning
I can now sort of understand why OP might have problems with vowel length. These mnemonics don’t sound very good :(.
I would second Leebo’s suggestion. If clapping is too much, what worked for me to get rhythm right was nodding my head while talking to measure out sound lengths.
Me, too! I call it a spelling problem. When I get it wrong, I click the audio to check my pronunciation. Other than that, I just try to commit to memory.
Regardless, you’ll soon grow out of the mnemonics and just instinctively remember it which is the point.
Some of the mnemonics are quite convoluted, so I kind of just look at the radicals, maybe use a small part of the mnemonic and make a very loose connection in my head that works, so I never really remember the full mnemonic of a kanji, after a while, I don’t even need that mnemonic either, the こう and こ thing gets easier after some more time with the program, I won’t pretend I didn’t sometimes forget it, now I rarely do, even for new ones.
I think OPs biggest issue is the fact he can’t pronounce it properly, that’s a very important step to this
I mean, I agree completely, but why construct a mnemonic that plays right into possible mishearing or mispronunciation issues? To give some context, when I started WaniKani to me the “small kyoto” and “small tokyo” mnemonics made no sense and were actually distracting, because there is only one of きょうと and とうきょう.
That or doesn’t yet have experience with hearing the vowel length difference. Both will work out just fine with practice 
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I mean, I agree completely, but why construct a mnemonic that plays right into possible mishearing or mispronunciation issues? To give some context, when I started WaniKani to me the “small kyoto” and “small tokyo” mnemonics made no sense and were actually distracting, because there is only one of きょうと and とうきょう.
I’m not sure I understand how these can make you mishear/mispronounce tbh.
That or doesn’t yet have experience with hearing the vowel length difference. Both will work out just fine with practice
For sure, I think a good way is songs, they tend to separate the こ and う so when you try putting both of the sounds together, gradually going quicker, it could help.
And as much of a weeb as it would make me sound to say this, but anime has certainly helped me understand lots of things, like basic grammar, phrases and pronunciation. Though of course I know it’s exaggerated when spoken.