つ　and っ

I noticed when repeating a double letter, for example "dda" it makes a つ symbol, but smaller. When reading the writing in Japanese, how will I know the difference to these two?

From what I have seen the only way to know is by the fact the TSU mark when used for a double consonant will be smaller. Also knowing how the word is spelled helps... like Akai and Akakatta. "あかい" and "あかった" red and was red. あかった versus あかつた.. tsu size difference.. And just like the yōon.. きゃ, きゅ, きょ. They are NOT Kiya, Kiyu and Kiyo... being they have the smaller syllables after you can tell they are actually Kya, Kyu, and Kyo. If you can decipher those you should be able to pick up on the smaller Tsu as well.

Minnasan Konnichiwa! The big *つ* and small *っ*... A few of the KANA symbols are written smaller for certain purposes. Unlike the difference between the English capital "A" and the lower case "a" where there is an obvious difference, a large and small Hiragana/Katakana may not seem too obvious because they are the exact same shape - only different in size. Generally, you will only come across a small *っ* in the middle of a word, but you may also see it at the end of words to show that the last syllable is spoken with emphasis. For example: *まて* = _mate_ (This is a normally spoken command "Wait") *まて__っ__* = _mate!_ (With a small *っ*, it acts like an exclamation and expresses a shorted command "Wait!!")

Oh I dont think I have ever come across it coming at the end of word before to add emphasis... have to remember that one.

I have a game that's in Japanese called Poporogue. It is all Japanese, and I have been playing it, and trying my best to translate all the letters I recognize. I know all Hiragana and Katakana now, I am just trying to read it clearly. I noticed the sign being at the end of one of the sentences, and it through me off. After reading that post, it makes sense now! :] Although I can read a lot of it (excluding the kanji), I do not know what they're saying :p for example, I even typed out this when my character 'lvled' up... Pietoro (the characters name) haruberuga 6 ni(some kanji symbol)gatta...but yeah, I really thank RJ for helping me learn the symbols and a lot of the vocab:]

the big つ is read as "tsu" but an example of usage in the small one is soap. Soap: せっけん it's written like: "sekken" the letter after the small っ is doubled hope this helped :D

[quo]*Quote from * Sayaka Minnasan Konnichiwa! The big *つ* and small *っ*... A few of the KANA symbols are written smaller for certain purposes. Unlike the difference between the English capital "A" and the lower case "a" where there is an obvious difference, a large and small Hiragana/Katakana may not seem too obvious because they are the exact same shape - only different in size. Generally, you will only come across a small *っ* in the middle of a word, but you may also see it at the end of words to show that the last syllable is spoken with emphasis. For example: *まて* = _mate_ (This is a normally spoken command "Wait") *まて__っ__* = _mate!_ (With a small *っ*, it acts like an exclamation and expresses a shorted command "Wait!!")[/quo] That helped me very much. I often read One Piece (ワンピース) comics and found that hiragana at the end of the sentence. I recognized it's a 'tsu' but it seemed strange, to be at the end of sentence and unable to double the next character. Now it make sense to me now :lol: Thanks a lot!

どういたしまして！　You are very welcome Wong-san! -Sayaka :P