Hello there, I bought my rocket Japanese course a long time ago and have not had the time to commit fully to it, now i have quite a bit of free time on my hands and want to get stuck in. I have probably bought most of the online Japanese courses available in the past few years and my Japanese is a bit jumbled up......there is a lot of spaces to fill in. So i have decided to stick with Rocket Japanese along with a set of Kana Flashcards i have just bought. This week i have learned all the Hiragana and Katakana symbols and have started writing them down and thought i would be able to read words but the word i get is usually different from the Kana i have spelled...... I will try and give an example..... shashin is a photograph but when i read the Hiragana i get shi ya shi n shinbun is a newspaper but i get shi n fu n I have only briefly browsed through the lessons...... is there a lesson you could point me to that can help and explain why some words or letters change? Thanks for any help.

Konnichiwa Gary-san Lesson 2.6 covers the 6th Row of Hiragana はひふへほ and notes the following: ふ with a circle (called maru) makes it 'pu' or ぷ ふ with two dots (called nigori) makes it 'bu' or ぶ Lesson 2.8 explains what are called the "Combination Syllables" You will learn about the three 'y' line Hiragana characters や、ゆ、 よ as well as the smaller versions of them - ゃ、ゅ、ょ which form combination syllables. Note that the small versions are EXACTLY the same shape (unlike capital and small letters in English). - Hope this helps! Sayaka ;)

Thanks for the information.

どういたしまして！ You're very welcome! :)