Is it a general rule that u is silent?
Desu (です) sounds like just Des
Suki (好き) sounds like just Ski
or is it one of those learn each word's pronounciation things?
The general phonological rule for most Eastern Japanese dialects is that high vowels (i and u) become devoiced when either surrounded by voiceless consonants (k, t, s), or preceded by a voiceless consonant in the final position.
I did search because such an obvious question must have come up previusly but I did not find anything; probably because I did not know what to search for.
It must be very annoying for experienced people to see these questions; whatever I read/listen to always ends up in me having questions...
(I discovered that the particle wa is always written as は and not わ the other day; which kind of threw me).
Is it a general rule that u is silent?
Desu (です) sounds like just Des
Suki (好き) sounds like just Ski
or is it one of those learn each word's pronounciation things?
I think that no problem if you spell it or not ..
coz sometime my teacher spell it like desu or des .
and it's maybe accent between every place in japan ,like American and British Accent ,that i my opinion ,so don't worry about that
TVM
I did search because such an obvious question must have come up previusly but I did not find anything; probably because I did not know what to search for.
It must be very annoying for experienced people to see these questions; whatever I read/listen to always ends up in me having questions...
(I discovered that the particle wa is always written as は and not わ the other day; which kind of threw me).
It's alright to ask questions; there actually haven't been too many people asking about the devoiced vowels (minor point: devoiced vowels are vowels that are usually voiced but aren't in certain situations, unvoiced vowels are unvoiced to begin with). I tried to give as complete an answer in the other thread so it could be referenced in the future, just as it has been in this thread (thanks, toritoribe, for finding it.)
As for writing in romaji, I try to write as if I'm still using Japanese characters. There is no character for 's' in Japanese, so by trying to write romaji phonemically, you are more or less changing the way the language works. I sometimes make an exception for the は particle, because it's so confusing to people who aren't familiar with it. Really, you are better off to just avoid using romaji altogether.
TVM
I did search because such an obvious question must have come up previusly but I did not find anything; probably because I did not know what to search for.
It must be very annoying for experienced people to see these questions; whatever I read/listen to always ends up in me having questions...
(I discovered that the particle wa is always written as は and not わ the other day; which kind of threw me).
No, no. No problem. I just quoted the explanation I'd once read, because it's far better than I could give.
There is a well-known proverb 聞くは一時の恥、聞かぬは一生の恥 in Japan. The meaning is "to ask may bring momentary shame, but not to ask and remain ignorant brings everlasting shame." ;-)