Hello. The [ー] inside this word [ボールペン] is hiragana or katakana..i cant find it anywhere - Feed Post by YuenAng123
Hello. The [ー] inside this word [ボールペン] is hiragana or katakana..i cant find it anywhere
posted by YuenAng123
Comments 4
Neither really.. It's a typographic symbol. Just like the Japanese period symbol (。) isn't hiragana or katakana or kanji, and just like the period symbol using in English (.) isn't part of the alphabet. ^^
That ー symbol is called 長音符（ちょうおんぷ）, which should be enough to explain what it does. ^^
長（ちょう）"long"
音（おん）"sound"
符（ふ）"mark"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chouonpu
why it's need in the word [ボールペン]?
It's needed in the word because you hold the ボ sound for longer. You hold the "o" so it doesn't sound like you're saying "ball pen".- ohh thank you
