"がっこう"
Translation:a school
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The small っ works like glue to the syllables around it and is not pronounced. If it were a normal, big つ it would be "gatsukou", but with a small っ, the "tsu" sound disappears and instead tells you to carry the first letter of the syllable to the right of it to the end of the syllable to the left of it - "gak kou". So, やった is "yat ta" not "yatsuta".
If a kana is small, it generally means that it shouldn't be counted as an individual syllable, but rather a part of the previous. I.e. ち = chi, よ = yo --> ちょ = cho き = ki, や = ya --> きゃ = kya where "kya" and "cho" are each one syllable.
(Please correct me if I'm wrong, I haven't been learning for a long time.)
No, the tsu doubles the sound of the letter, kind of like adding a U sound, elongates the sound slightly, so you need it to make the word actually the word :)
Humorously, (according to the dictionary hints on hover), "こ" alone can mean "scary"
Can someone tell me how to type ''っ'' on a keyboard? Cus i can only do the bigger one and using that one makes me fail.
This is probably a little late, but most IMEs will make っ by typing "xtu." Generally, typing an "x" before anything you want to make small and standalone works. So I can make ゃ without having き or something else with it. Though, honestly, just typing the word as normally romanized with the double consonants will automatically add the っ (gakkou = がっこう).
My SwiftKey keyboard on the phone, there's a special button to go through that letter and it's different pronunciations. っつづ
The small tsu 'っ' means that the letter after that is doubled. Well, that's from my understanding.
For example:
KKO : っこ TTO : っと PPO : っぽ RRO : っろ
I don't know if they're japanese words, I mean, I only made them up. But I hope this helps your struggle! ❤
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This word means schools in general. They use "小学校/しょうがっこう", "中学校/ちゅうがっこう", "高校/こうこう" and "大学/だいがく" for elementary school (6~12), junior high school (13~15), senior high school (16~18) and "college (>19)" respectively. :)
I watched the anime Gakkou Gurashi がっこうぐらし(School Live) a few weeks ago and it definetly helps me remember
I put “schools” plural just for fun and it was rejected. But it can be both school and schools as singular and plural are contextual. It’s the same word in Japanese.
yeah! I remember it because both 学校 (がっこう, school) and 学生 (がくせい, student) use the same kanji :)
Oh wow these both words in korean are very similar! 학교 (hakkyo) - school 학생 (hakseng) - student
Fascinating
so school is gakkou, and student is gaksei. is there a reason they both start with the gak sound, or is that just a coincidence?
It's not a coincidence. This was briefly covered in a lesson tip - somewhere around the Intro 1 or Intro 2 lessons, maybe. I think it was only in the Android app, not the web version, but you can check just in case.
Kanji / terms can be the compound result of smaller components. The kanji 学 「がく」 represents the concept of studying or learning. So a compound word with such prefix likely has some relation to education. Hence 学校 「がっこう」 - school. And 学生 「がくせい」 - student. It's worth remembering that kanji can often have a couple different readings, so this isn't exactly a perfect predictor of future vocabulary. But speaking from my own experience, knowing this absolutely helps with learning and memorizing new words that are associated with already-known terms.
"gakkou" Remember that Japanese is split up into these syllable-like things called mora, which all take up the same amount of time, regardless of position. In other words, there is no stressing syllables in Japanese, so every component (mora) is pronounced for the exact same length of time.
So, がっこう "gakkou" is made up of 4 mora: ga - k - ko - u.
The が "ga" is just as it seems. Say this for, say, 0.2 seconds.
The っ extends the following consonant. So, since that would be "k" (in こ "ko") your mouth gets frozen in a "k" position for another 0.2 seconds. (Hence the double "k" romanization)
The こう "kou" at the end of the word is called a long vowel. Because the "o" and "u" sounds are paired up, the う "u" serves to extend the "o" sound in こ "ko", which gets pronounced for double the amount of time (0.4 seconds).
Keep in mind that 0.2 seconds was just an example.
Am I missing something? I am being asked to translate words i have never seen before. Is there a vocabulary list i should review before each lesson?
Above the "start" button for each lesson, at least on PC, there's a little "tips" button that works you through grammar sometimes and shows you the words. If not, you can also click / hover a word to get a popup of its translation; this is normally what I use.
In a translation question it is accepted.
The contributors however are unable to add alternate answers to listening 'type what you hear' questions as they are automatically generated from a source sentence. There is no ability in the incubator for them to do so.
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They are both schools but based on circumstances you use one not the other
学校（がっこう） 中学校（ちゅうがっこう） 専門学校（せんもんがっこう）
学園（がくえん） 学園祭 （がくえんさい） 学園ドラマ
I know how unrelated to the topic this is... but KeithWong9, congrats on your streak!!!!
If the pronunciation of がっこう is ´´Gako´´ , why isn´t it written like が こ ??
The mini-tsu signifies something like a glottal stop, like you're holding on to the previous syllable before saying the next, or holding onto the consonant at the start of the next character before saying it fully. This stoppage is symbolised using english letters by writing a double consonant. The "u" on the end elongates the last vowel. So in essence, when you see a doubled vowel or consonant in the english letters, it means getting stuck on that letter – when it's a vowel you're saying it longer, and when it's a consonant you get it stuck in your throat.
がこ = gako
がっこう = gakkou / gakko– / gakkō (depending on how you prefer to write it)
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This is a section on Hiragana, and they seem to prefer that. On my computer, even if it automatically makes the Kanji, it gives a pop-up list with the other letters/syllables you can select.
