I looked at the word shufu and it instead of a u symbol there was a yu why is that? - Feed Post by Joker12332
I looked at the word shufu and it instead of a u symbol there was a yu why is that?
posted by Joker12332
Comments 10
Man I hate romaji...
Learn hiragana then come back. <<< Mean answer.
It's just works that way, learn hiragana then come back. <<< Trying not to be mean answer.
I'm bad at explaining this, but basically when you want to make the SHA（しゃ）, SHU（しゅ） and SHO（しょ） sounds, you use the SHI（し）hiragana and add a small YA（や）, YU（ゆ） or YO（よ）. This works for other kana too. <<< Trying to actually explain it.
Try not to use rōmaji too much since it's counterproductive, learn hiragana and you will understand. <<< Friendly advice.- Actually, I'll recommend you this:
http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar
There's no point in learning kanji and vocabulary if you can't string a sentence together. That grammar guide will give you a pretty good grasp of the Japanese grammar. You can combine grammar and vocabulary learning, it's not like one impedes the other. 
thx, ill check it out- I wasn't trying to be mean with my earlier comment. I was trying to hint that the problem you have (, the only reason why you have this question,) is because of romaji. Instead of simply straight-up answering the question, I hoped my response might provoke you to consider whether romaji could be causing the confusion.
(...And I was on my phone at the time and didn't want to type a longer answer.) ^^;
さ sa, し si, す su, せ se, そ so.
However し sounds more like "shi" rather than "si". So you'll usually see the romaji for し written as "shi" instead.
しうふ si-u-fu = shi-u-fu
しゆふ si-yu-fu = shi-yu-fu
しゅふ syu-fu = shu-fu
ｋ│き ki + ゅ yu → きゅ kiyu ⇨ kyu
ｇ│ぎ gi + ゅ yu → ぎゅ giyu ⇨ gyu
ｓ│し si(shi) + ゅ yu → しゅ siyu(shiyu) ⇨ syu(shu)
ｚ│じ zi(ji) + ゅ yu → じゅ ziyu(jiyu) ⇨ zyu(jyu/ju)
ｔ│ち ti(chi) + ゅ yu → ちゅ tiyu(chiyu) ⇨ tyu(chu)
ｄ│ぢ di(ji) + ゅ yu → ぢゅ diyu(jiyu) ⇨ dyu(jyu/ju)
ｎ│に ni + ゅ yu → にゅ niyu ⇨ nyu
ｈ│ひ hi + ゅ yu → ひゅ hiyu ⇨ hyu
ｂ│び bi + ゅ yu → びゅ biyu ⇨ byu
ｐ│ぴ pi + ゅ yu → ぴゅ piyu ⇨ pyu
ｍ│み mi + ゅ yu → みゅ miyu ⇨ myu
ｒ│り ri + ゅ yu → りゅ riyu ⇨ ryu
↑The small ゃ ゅ and ょ join with the hiragana that end in the vowel "i". The only reason you were confused about しゅふ is because silly romaji spells し with a "h" in it. This then causes しゅ to also be written in romaji with a "h" (instead of the "y"). Some styles of romaji spell しゅ as "syu" though.
In short: romaji is stupid. :P - Man, why are you so good at explaining things... If I had a fetish for teachers you'd be giving me boners every time you explain something.
- @FelliVox, Haha. Thanks (I think)... :)
I copy-pasted half my comment from one of my previous posts (and did a quick bit of find-replace editing on it). I think I might have explained it even better there:
http://japaneseclass.jp/feeds/comment/8675 - Ah, I remember that post. Well, I'm just grateful that there is someone like you here who can explain things without being lazy. I feel too lazy to do that most days.
- So i assume its the same for "Tsu" and "Chi"
- @Joker, Yep. It's easy to forget that "tsu" and "chi" are both from the same row of kana, thanks to good ol' romaji...
た ta, ち ti, つ tu, て te, と to.
ち sounds more like "chi" rather than "ti", and つ sounds more like "tsu" rather than "tu". So you'll usually see them spelt in romaji how they sound instead. Some styles of romaji spell them "ti" and "tu" however.
Same again with the voiced versions of those kana:
ざ za, じ zi, ず zu, ぜ ze, ぞ zo.
だ da, ぢ di, づ du, で de, ど do.
The most common style of romaji you will see spells じ and ぢ both as "ji", because that's what they sound like; and づ sounds more like "zu" rather than "du", so both ず and づ end up being spelled the same "zu" in romaji.
And then this makes things confusing for じゃ ja (zya) versus ぢゃ ja (dya).
The only reason し ち つ じ ぢ づ sound different to si, ti, tu, zi, di, du, is because when trying to pronounce those sounds correctly in Japanese it naturally ends up sounding like that. Not because they are designed to be different. The sooner you get used to living without romaji, the sooner this becomes a lot less confusing. ^^
