A Few Questions

[agmoyer]

I started this course yesterday and I love it. Taking my time and now learned how to spell おはよう and I was wondering why は is pronounced ha in this word but on its own is wa?

Also why よ is followed by うwhen the end on its own is pronounced like the letter e but at the end of おはよう it is silent?

Also any tips to remembering all these characters as I progress?

Side note I get this is in beta but when I was presented with おはよう I was not shown the english first like when I was learning German. I guessed and thought it was hi but was obviously wrong. Then when shown はい I knew right away it was yes thanks to anime...

Thanks for reading, hope someone can clarify these for me

[garpike]

'は' is normally 'ha' (as in 'はい'); it is only 'wa' when it's the topic particle. However, since this particle is so inordinately ubiquitous, it seems that Duolingo has decided to give 'は' the isolated reading of 'wa' at all times (during the alpha test, it started off as 'ha').

'う' just lengthens the vowel after an 'o' sound.

[claudiascogg]

は is normally 'ha' however, it can change to 'wa' because it is a topic maker for example 'watashi wa'

[Kiwodaku]

Note, う is not e but o.

Think of each character as representing a beat. The う does indeed change to extend the o sound, but it has the same length as the others: O-HA-YO-O.

[agmoyer]

During the lessons it kept pronouncing it as e so it was throwing me off since I know い as e (in sound)