Hiragana & Katakana. Long syllables
This post will look at how syllables with long vowels and long consonants are written in kana.
In hiragana, to denote a long vowel, we add to the syllable the appropriate kana character:
- long sound [a]: ああ, かあ
- long sound [i]: いい, きい
- long sound [u]: うう, くう
- long sound [e]: usually, the character い is used: せい [se:], めい [me:], although you can also find the use of え: ええ, めえ
- long sound [o]: usually, the character う is used: おう, こう, but sometimes the use of おお is possible
In katakana, to mark a long vowel, add a horizontal line after the corresponding kana character: マー [ma:], ヨー [yo:], for example, ニューヨーク [nyu:yo:ku] - New York
Now it's time to move on to long consonants.
For this, use a small character つ (for hiragana) or ツ (for katakana). Just add it before a syllable with a long consonant: にっき - nikki, がっこ - gakko, サッカー - sakka:
