Itsu and tsu

Itsu and tsu letters look EXACTLY the same to me, backwards c with lower end shorter. Why can’t you substitute one for the other in the kanji board? How are those shapes different. In english they look different, but in Japanese they look the same???

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You mean う and つ?

Over time you’ll get an eye for it, no worries.
There is a real difference though!
Look here:

つっ

There are also little ya, yo and yu’s.

やゃ
よょ
ゆゅ

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っ and つ?
They’re different sizes and mean different things. If you haven’t yet, try learning all the hiragana before doing wanikani.
But, though you can type っ by typing ltsu, that’s not how it’s read. It’s sort of a glottal stop.
いっか is read ikka (i-ka)
いつか is read itsuka

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I wonder if Japanese people ever get confused over “b” and “d”…

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If they can distinguish between ツ and シ in handwriting, nothing is allowed to confuse them

Also with b and d you make a bed and have to sleep on it so make sure the headboard and… end… board… are facing the right way!
the best tip ever

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Human vision is remarkably designed to recognize things that are the same, even when seen from different vantage points. From that perspective, ‘b’ and ‘d’ are essentially identical, but seen from the other side.

Learning to differentiate these actually is in conflict with this visual skill. Lot’s of people have such a difficulty. We call it a form of dyslexia.

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Only if they get confused by さ and ち I suppose.

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I’m guessing you’re talking about the ちいさいつ (Chisatsu)?

IMO there’s a MAJOR difference between つ and it’s smaller version.
And if you just can’t tell the size differences, it’s also going to be problematic to read combo hiragana/katakana because やゆよ are all written in smaller versions to make the reader know how to pronounce it in which way. As you keep reading more and more Japanese writing it gets really really easy to tell them apart, good luck!

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When I get confused by Japanese writing I remember that we have both I and l as separate letters and somehow this almost never causes confusion, so we aren’t really allowed to complain either :slight_smile:

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Also, I’ve always found ン and ソ way harder to differentiate than シ and ツ

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Wait, did you mean “ALLOWED” or “AIIOWED”?

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TIL

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Small correction: while っ can represent a glottal stop at the end of an utterance, it is not its main function. What it usually does is cause gemination in the following consonant. (A glottal stop is its own consonant.)

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Speak for yourself!
I wasn’t sure if it was the Iifa tree or lifa tree for so long…

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Fun fact. They used to be literally identical in older writing. Same with や and ゃ etc.

To be honest, I find ソ and ン to be far confusing, depending on the font.

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Well, that’s why I said sort of. I’ve usually seen it explained as a glottal stop, presumably some people know what that is, while no one knows what germination is outside of plant reproduction. :wink:

But yes, you’re correct.

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It’s GEMination for the sound, not GERMination. :joy: But yeah I had never heard of gemination before I studied Japanese

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Ievan polkka vs levan polkka

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:wink:

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