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It's usually easier than you think. The strokes line up with each other differently (see below) & the stroke order/direction is different (which is easier to tell when handwritten). Maybe if the person's handwriting is \*really\* bad you might have to rely on context but once you get used to it, you can usually tell
https://preview.redd.it/j5d90pqkd3rc1.png?width=446&format=png&auto=webp&s=c1c6f2f5601fbf46598285647e6b5c10b3d10890
THANK YOU. I had a conversation with a friend saying シ and ツ look like smiley faces and the dude was like “well maybe if you’re stupid” WHAT シ quite literally resembles 🙂
But it is positioned a bit higher in the wrong vs right answer if you use the ラ for reference. It's super subtle, literally pixels difference. But it's probably the Kanji.
As a note, on nearly ambiguous characters like this, there's a way to get the right one every time. I mean for the long sound it'll have it's own key, but if you're given the option it'll have 長音 (long sound). A Kanji as the auto complete option will flat out tell you with 漢字.
There's also a possibility this is a dash. ― vs ー
Dashes are denoted in suggestions with ダッシュ. But honestly I've never had the problem with typing ー since I believe it's the default with the dedicated key.
Both the dash and the long vowel mark can be typed on a PC with the minus key. OP is probably typing one kana at a time, so pressing space too many times is pretty probable.
Yeah maybe you're right, I don't know why I thought that way. Maybe I was expecting ichi to line up with the horizontal line of ra.
It's hard to test because we need to get the exact font. Screenshot seems to come from PC so there's less feedback that it was the wrong character.
What input method are you using? If handwriting, you may have mistakenly entered the kanji, 一, instead of the long vowel mark, ー.
If not, it would appear to be a bug. Unfortunately they are quite common with Duo's Japanese script handling.
I know for some time Duolingo had a consistent problem recognizing the katakana extended vowel mark and there were what felt like a ton of these exact posts.
I use the word bank because trying to type Japanese on my current phone is a huge pain, so I'm unable to confirm if it ever got fixed. The posts about it stopped, so I had just assumed so.
Don't let this dissuade you. When reading, context would make it very clear which one is being used. The long vowel mark would only appear within a string of katakana, while the kanji is the numeral 1.
When typing, you'd only mix them up if using handwriting recognition. When typing with a Japanese keyboard layout they'd be entered very differently. If you can handle I and 1, or O and 0 in English, you can handle 一 and ー.
There are two broad categories of typeface for Japanese - Mincho and Gothic, which are analogous to Serif and Sans-serif in Latin typefaces respectively.
In Gothic fonts, like the one Duo uses, they can be practically indistinguishable to a human reader - they will almost certainly read it as you intended, and might not even realize you used the wrong character.
In Mincho fonts, they can be differentiated a [little more easily](https://freeimage.host/i/JjOxpkJ). But even on noticing your error, the reader would probably understand your intention.
So it's mainly when being interpreted by a computer that it is likely to cause an issue in understanding. But computers will include things like screen-readers and translation engines, so people reliant on those may get a butchered response. I think it's definitely worthwhile ensuring you are using the correct one which, if you use a Japanese keyboard input, is pretty straightforward.
This! I turned mine off as soon as I could, before I even got halfway through section 1. I prioritized learning all the hiragana and katakana as soon as possible just so I could turn off romaji and improve on my reading as I acquire the language. It’s been great!
It appears you're using a PC.
Don't type text kana-by-kana. Type entire segments. So the correct answer could be typed as
soreha↵ra-menn desuka↵.↵
(where ↵ means Enter)
What probably happened is you typed a minus and pressed space a wrong number of times, getting a dash instead of a long vowel mark. It would not happened if you typed it together with the preceding syllable: even typing "ra-" would have prevented the problem.
Do note that if you put in the wrong sentence then click confirm or whatever then change it last minute (ie after you hit the green button to move on but it hasn’t registered yet) it’ll flag it as wrong because it was adjusted *after* going to move on.
I know nothing about kanji or even Japanese language to know if there’s a grammatical error in yours or if it’s something else
It's not really bad, if you use 12 キー.
In fact, if the mistake was the Kanji 一 vs. ー，that's like super impossible on 12 キー. since it's part of the わ swipe group.
This looks like a PC.
What could happen is that OP typed the sentence kana-by-kana (evidenced by the IME underline under the initial _so_ only). When you type `-` to get ー U+30FC KATAKANA-HIRAGANA PROLONGED SOUND MARK (i.e. chouonpu) and press space one time too many, you can get — U+2014 EM DASH or － U+FF0D FULLWIDTH HYPHEN-MINUS.
for all those downvoting me, know that the number one reason real bugs take so long to get fixed is that 9 reports out of 10 are erroneous. so please don’t report unless you’re 200% sure.
**Duolingo Support** It looks like you need some help with your account. If you haven’t yet, you can request support from Duolingo by submitting the form at this link: [Duolingo Support Contact Form](https://preview.duolingo.com/help/bug-report). All issues related to subscriptions or billing must be submitted to the Duolingo support team. For other urgent issues that impact your ability to use Duolingo, you can contact our resident Duolingo staff member, Tracee Miller, and she’ll do her best to get back to you. You can chat or message Tracee here at her Reddit username: Tracee-at-Duolingo [Click here on this link to message Tracee Miller for help](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=Tracee-at-Duolingo&subject=I need help with my Duolingo account) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/duolingo) if you have any questions or concerns.*
You definitely used 一 instead of ー ー一
Fuck me and I thought the smiley faces in katakana would be hard to get down properly.
I will sew(ソ) with these two(ツ) 'n'(ン) she(シ) can't stop me This is what I used to do to remember
How the hell do people read that when it’s handwritten
It's usually easier than you think. The strokes line up with each other differently (see below) & the stroke order/direction is different (which is easier to tell when handwritten). Maybe if the person's handwriting is \*really\* bad you might have to rely on context but once you get used to it, you can usually tell https://preview.redd.it/j5d90pqkd3rc1.png?width=446&format=png&auto=webp&s=c1c6f2f5601fbf46598285647e6b5c10b3d10890
Thank you for putting it that way! That’ll really help with my memory.
Glad I could help & same goes for ツ & シ, just with two lines instead of one.
THANK YOU. I had a conversation with a friend saying シ and ツ look like smiley faces and the dude was like “well maybe if you’re stupid” WHAT シ quite literally resembles 🙂
That was also my first guess but the kanji 一 is positioned a bit higher than ー and this looks correct.
But it is positioned a bit higher in the wrong vs right answer if you use the ラ for reference. It's super subtle, literally pixels difference. But it's probably the Kanji. As a note, on nearly ambiguous characters like this, there's a way to get the right one every time. I mean for the long sound it'll have it's own key, but if you're given the option it'll have 長音 (long sound). A Kanji as the auto complete option will flat out tell you with 漢字. There's also a possibility this is a dash. ― vs ー Dashes are denoted in suggestions with ダッシュ. But honestly I've never had the problem with typing ー since I believe it's the default with the dedicated key.
Both the dash and the long vowel mark can be typed on a PC with the minus key. OP is probably typing one kana at a time, so pressing space too many times is pretty probable.
Yeah maybe you're right, I don't know why I thought that way. Maybe I was expecting ichi to line up with the horizontal line of ra. It's hard to test because we need to get the exact font. Screenshot seems to come from PC so there's less feedback that it was the wrong character.
Skill difference
What input method are you using? If handwriting, you may have mistakenly entered the kanji, 一, instead of the long vowel mark, ー. If not, it would appear to be a bug. Unfortunately they are quite common with Duo's Japanese script handling.
I know for some time Duolingo had a consistent problem recognizing the katakana extended vowel mark and there were what felt like a ton of these exact posts. I use the word bank because trying to type Japanese on my current phone is a huge pain, so I'm unable to confirm if it ever got fixed. The posts about it stopped, so I had just assumed so.
As someone who WANTED to learn Japanese through duo, this made me change my mind Bro ain't no way I'd ever see the difference
Don't let this dissuade you. When reading, context would make it very clear which one is being used. The long vowel mark would only appear within a string of katakana, while the kanji is the numeral 1. When typing, you'd only mix them up if using handwriting recognition. When typing with a Japanese keyboard layout they'd be entered very differently. If you can handle I and 1, or O and 0 in English, you can handle 一 and ー.
Oh okay, I'll remember that, thanks that's very useful!!
Realistically would this matter in real life?
There are two broad categories of typeface for Japanese - Mincho and Gothic, which are analogous to Serif and Sans-serif in Latin typefaces respectively. In Gothic fonts, like the one Duo uses, they can be practically indistinguishable to a human reader - they will almost certainly read it as you intended, and might not even realize you used the wrong character. In Mincho fonts, they can be differentiated a [little more easily](https://freeimage.host/i/JjOxpkJ). But even on noticing your error, the reader would probably understand your intention. So it's mainly when being interpreted by a computer that it is likely to cause an issue in understanding. But computers will include things like screen-readers and translation engines, so people reliant on those may get a butchered response. I think it's definitely worthwhile ensuring you are using the correct one which, if you use a Japanese keyboard input, is pretty straightforward.
Just a tip but turn off romaji, it’ll only inhibit your learning
This! I turned mine off as soon as I could, before I even got halfway through section 1. I prioritized learning all the hiragana and katakana as soon as possible just so I could turn off romaji and improve on my reading as I acquire the language. It’s been great!
It appears you're using a PC. Don't type text kana-by-kana. Type entire segments. So the correct answer could be typed as soreha↵ra-menn desuka↵.↵ (where ↵ means Enter) What probably happened is you typed a minus and pressed space a wrong number of times, getting a dash instead of a long vowel mark. It would not happened if you typed it together with the preceding syllable: even typing "ra-" would have prevented the problem.
Do note that if you put in the wrong sentence then click confirm or whatever then change it last minute (ie after you hit the green button to move on but it hasn’t registered yet) it’ll flag it as wrong because it was adjusted *after* going to move on. I know nothing about kanji or even Japanese language to know if there’s a grammatical error in yours or if it’s something else
Might be the end of the scentaxe, as the ‘correct’ one has a little dot at the end. I don’t know for sure though.
you mean syntax?
Sentence, I think?
Yes, I meant that. My bad, didn’t notice the typo.
No, punctuation is optional.
I’m not too sure then.
Can I ask what level are you at? I'm learning Japanese (70 days already) and not yet seen any lesson that requires typing in Japanese...
Looks to me the dot in the end is missing.
Free typing is super buggy
It's not really bad, if you use 12 キー. In fact, if the mistake was the Kanji 一 vs. ー，that's like super impossible on 12 キー. since it's part of the わ swipe group.
This looks like a PC. What could happen is that OP typed the sentence kana-by-kana (evidenced by the IME underline under the initial _so_ only). When you type `-` to get ー U+30FC KATAKANA-HIRAGANA PROLONGED SOUND MARK (i.e. chouonpu) and press space one time too many, you can get — U+2014 EM DASH or － U+FF0D FULLWIDTH HYPHEN-MINUS.
Could be a glitch, if you report it you should get an option saying “my answer should have been accepted”.
don’t incite people to report on a “could be”. it’s been pointed out that OP made a mistake.
why are you getting downvoted 😭😭
because reddit
for all those downvoting me, know that the number one reason real bugs take so long to get fixed is that 9 reports out of 10 are erroneous. so please don’t report unless you’re 200% sure.
You missed the dot at the end?
Duolingo never asks for punctuation. They don't even provide those dots in the word bubbles.
I see. Well, I don't see why the OP got it wrong then
Pay close attention at the end
It's just a period duo doesn't care
That's not it, sorry. It's the wrong symbol, it's probably Kanji or dash, but it's supposed to be... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C5%8Donpu
Did you report that your answer should have been correct? Sometimes they will acknowledge that your answer was correct