I feel like I’m being bad here but what’s “ー” and why does it do? I think the katakana guide on Tofugu told me it was for long vowels but it’s been years since I’ve even thought about those, much less actually had to remember which long vowels are what. Could I get help on that?
Sorry if this is a dumb question…
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Yes, it lengthens a vowel sound in katakana.
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So is it kinda like typing (for example) “Ruuuuun!” in English?
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No, it’s more like “cheese” … チーズ。
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I havent seen it used in that sense, its mostly just used for longer vowel sounds like the example @AnimeCanuck used.
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Actually, it’s sometimes used in casual speech and manga and such for drawing out sounds, but yeah, the primary use is for long vowels in katakana.
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Many words in Japanese are differentiated by the length of their vowels.
It’s like the difference between しゅ and しゅう or そ and そう, but the ー character is typically used in katakana.
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Best example I can think of in katakana is ビル (building) and ビール (beer).
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