Help What is this Symbol and what does it do?

To practice reading Hiragana characters I've started reading Yotsuba just now and have already stumpled upon something that confuses me:
Regarding these symbols:
1: What does this symbol do? What is it called anyways? I haven't seen this in any Hiragana/Katakana(haven't started learning these yet) character set.


2: Does this stretch the "O" out, such as: "ooooo"?

3: Same as #2. Is this going to be "oooooootsu" then?


4: One Yotsuba unrelated question:
I read "始めましょう" on a website, which apparently translates to something like "Lets begin".
Anyways, I haven't learnt the first symbol yet, so I can not read it anyway. But when translating this I get: "Hajimemashou"
But if I break the word up into: 始(Haji) め(me) ま(ma) し(chi) ょ(yo) う(u). How can "Hajimemashou" become "Hajimemachiyou" ? This confuses me a lot.

Any help is kindly appreciated!
Thanks alot in advance!

My god I'm unable to find that edit button.

I've found an answer to "Question" #4. Apparently (し(chi) + ょ(yo)) become -> sho.



Still unsure about that long bar though. Especially at the end of a sentence, as in example #1.

Yes, the bar draws out the vowel sound.
し is "shi", not "chi".

What did you use to learn hiragana? No offense, but you seem to be confused about some of the most fundamental concepts regarding how hiragana works.

Here is an online guide that many people seem to recommend these days: Learn Hiragana: The Ultimate Guide
I suggest that you read it thoroughly and make sure you grasp everything there before you try to practice reading with native materials.

bentenmusume said:

Yes, the bar draws out the vowel sound.
し is "shi", not "chi".

What did you use to learn hiragana? No offense, but you seem to be confused about some of the most fundamental concepts regarding how hiragana works.

Here is an online guide that many people seem to recommend these days: Learn Hiragana: The Ultimate Guide
I suggest that you read it thoroughly and make sure you grasp everything there before you try to practice reading with native materials.

Click to expand...

I'm still memorizing Hiragana characters by playing a game called Learn Japanese To Survive! Hiragana Battle.
I have learned about Dakuten, the "small tsu" and what happens when you use 2 vowels consequently, but nothing about combining hiragana yet.
Also, I've started reading into Genki 1 today and will try to incorporate that into my studies.

Thanks for the link. I will make sure to do the exercises combining hiragana and additional practice. I had no idea that exists since the game hasn't introduced that topic yet. Unfortunately, though, I couldn't find anything about the bar symbol, that draws out the vowel sound in the link you sent me. Do you know what it is called and maybe share a link to read more about it, please?

I just wanted to have a practical approach by diving in head first and trying to read an "easy" manga and writing along with what I read, to get my hand used to writing more Hiragana and give my subconscious a taste of writing sentences in Japanese.

Now I will switch my strategy and first learn the Hiragana characters fluently and do the exercises. Then start learning about grammar rules and simultaneously read Yotsuba again when I feel ready.

Thank you for your help!

I've never learned the name of that thing but I imagine it has an official grammatical term. I bet most Japanese people couldn't tell you though. Probably they'd say ボー (bar) or something.
In hiragana you usually just repeat the vowel. In katakana the bar is used.
Example:
Osaka is おおさか in hiragana or オーサカ in katakana.
Coffee is コーヒー in katakana or こうひい in hiragana.
Note, the long O sound is usually represented by う not お but お is not uncommon either.
One more:
Tokyo → 東京 → とうきょう → トーキョー

Supāda said:

1: What does this symbol do? What is it called anyways?

Click to expand...

It's called 長音符（ちょうおんぷ） or 長音記号（ちょうおんきごう） in Japanese, meaning "long sound symbol".

Supāda said:

I've started reading into Genki 1 today and will try to incorporate that into my studies.

Click to expand...

Genki is often recommended by many learners. You can find lots of threads regarding Genki in this forum.