The Japanese hiragana and katakana syllabaries can mostly be described as phonetic. But there are two exceptions, the two pairs of syllables modified to be voiced with the dakuten diacritic which turns them into homophones: す (su) → ず (zu); つ (tsu) → づ (zu) し (shi) → じ (ji); ち (chi) → ぢ (ji) The same goes for katakana:

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Oct 14, 2017 · Hiragana "し" is "SHI" sound, not "SI" sound. じ is voiced version of し so it can't be "ZI". Using that logic, "じ” should be "ZHI" However, "ZHI" doesn't exist in English spelling while "JI" is very common in English i.e. Jingle, Jim,jiggle etc., That's why "じ” is spelled "JI" I guess. To my ear,"Zi" sounds like ”ズィ”.

In the Human Japanese app, it says that chi and tsu become ji and zu respectively, while on Wikipedia it says that most commonly, they become shi and su.

Mar 26, 2023 · にほんじん is exactly the same word but written in hiragana. Adults normally use the kanji version (日本人), but にほんじん appears in beginners' textbooks because it's easier to learn at first. Japanese is a language where three types of scripts are used in one sentence. For an introduction, please read the following articles:

Nov 26, 2016 · The second character of もっと is called sokuon, it's not the normal hiragana 'つ'. The difference is that the sokuon is smaller (other than that, they are identical, so your question is totally understandable). For this reason it is also called small-tsu (or chiisaitsu in Japanese).

Jul 17, 2017 · Of the two やめろ (yamero) is the bossier one.やめて (yamete) comes across a bit softer; it's basically やめてください (yamete kudasai) minus the ください (kudasai).

Jul 5, 2020 · In そうなんですか (sounandesuka) the なん (nan) is used to explain something, give reasoning, or to emphasize something but in これはなんですか (korewanandesuka) the なん is treat as "what", how to know whe...

Jan 16, 2016 · The size of the area seems to be the most crucial factor. For example, you can use ようこそ in welcoming someone to a country, prefecture, city, amusement park, etc, but いらっしゃいませ is for welcoming someone into an establishment (such as a …

The small tsu character, っ is used to indicate a double consonant. So, for example: にっぽん (nippon) - Japan