Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don’t need their own posts, and first time posters go here (February 02, 2023)

This thread is for all simple questions, beginner questions, and comments that don’t need their own post.

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[Seven Day Archive](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/search?q=Daily+thread%3A&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=new&t=week) of previous threads. Consider browsing the previous day or two for unanswered questions.

1 comment
  1. How do I tell the difference between gender and the amount (singular or plural) of people/items discussed?

    I’m using Duolingo, and so far there is nothing to distinguish this; I just have to go by whichever answer is available.

    For example, the prompt might be

    “ii sensei desu.”

    “He/she is a good teacher”, right? But there’s not actually anything different in the prompt: the program just gives one gender in the answer and I know to select it.

    Or for the amount of items:

    “Ookii tori.”

    Apparently the answer can be “big bird, a big bird, or big birds”, but there is nothing to tell me which of those to answer with, there will just be one possible response on the answer.

    Are these differences not important in Japanese, do they come later, or is Duolingo leaving out something important?

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