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I realize I should not be spending too much time with romaji but I would like to try and understand more about how to translate hiragana to romaji. I used a translation web page and I noticed it sometimes adds spaces.

With the revised Hepburn system is this word translated like this: kisaten or kisa ten? If the later then can someone explain why.

Similar question: そうじ

Should this appear as Sō ji or Sōji

Thanks

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きっさてん is commonly referred to as kissaten, see Kissaten. Please note that there are two S because of the small つ, which creates an extended /s/ sound.

For そうじ, I am assuming you mean the suru verb. I would write "sōji" since it is all one word, not separate words.

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  • Thanks very much. Can you explain a bit more about a glottal stop? Just 1-2 line about it would be a big help.
    – Alan
    Sep 3, 2016 at 8:04
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    Yes. In Japanese, when you see the small っ (chiisai tsu), it means you have to make a short kind of break in the word at that location. For example, in kissaten, instead of four syllables "ki sa te n", you should say five syllables: "ki ss sa te n". I would imagine a kind of snake sound to hold the s for one syllable. In other words, like だった (datta) instead of "da ta", you should say "da (short break) ta"
    – Griffen
    Sep 3, 2016 at 8:08
  • @Alan, Please watch this video–I think it would be very beneficial youtube.com/watch?v=jVynW7frBig
    – Griffen
    Sep 3, 2016 at 8:11
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    It's actually neither glottal not a stop. Instead, it is a long /s/ sound.
    – user1478
    Sep 3, 2016 at 9:58
  • @snailplane Thank you for pointing that out. Since in cases such as だった and 待って it is a glottal stop, I just had it in my mind that it was a glottal stop.
    – Griffen
    Sep 3, 2016 at 10:01

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