Why are there two “Sa”s?

6 comments

1. There are two phonetic scripts in Japanese: Katakana and Hiragana. Every sound will have a character in each. Katakana is used for words of foreign origin and Hiragana is used mostly for Grammar and some words of Japanese origin. I would spend time learning both as fluently as possible and also learn a bit more about the grammar before pursuing duolingo. It’s great practise, but can underexplain things imo. I started with the Human Japanese apps and they were fantastic, still reference them to this day.

2. There’s connected and disconnected forms of several kana, り、さ、ち、ふ、な

   (edit: Oh, yes, as other people pointed out, there’s also both hiragana and katakana. This is probably what OP sees because the app is presumably consistently the same font, so the ‘two kinds of hiragana sa’ problem will come later.)

   The difference is just whether or not you lift your pen/brush off the paper completely or not between one stroke and the next or draw a connecting line as you move.

   The same thing also happens in kanji in handwriting and more brush-like fonts. You get used to it, more or less, although I don’t think you get used to 草書 — the ultimate expression of not lifting brush from paper — unless you practice Japanese calligraphy. Extensively.

3. I’d start from reading a primer on what kana are and why each is used

   r/learnjapanese has a good starter guide

   English also has a similar concept: F and f are written differently but the same sound, and are used in slightly different places in the language

4. oh my god does duolingo not even teach you hiragana and katakana?

5. What really helped me with duolingo was going to the alphabet tab which allowed me to work on hiragana and katakana separately

6. Not *exactly* an answer to your question but a tip. I started out learning on Duolingo and did so until just recently. Some people recommend Renshuu and it’s SO much better and more comprehensive. And it’s free unlike Duolingo!