Are there many occurrences of elongated syllables throughout the language?

Question

I've been studying Japanese through Duolingo and I wouldn't say I've progressed very far. I've learned some of the basics of Hiragana and it's beginning to transition into Kanji. While learning Hiragana I learned that House is pronounced Ie or いえ. When I began to transition into Kanji, I learned that no is pronounced Īe or いいえ with an elongated I syllable. When I translate House using Google Translate, a new character is presented: 家. I would assume this is correct, as the pronunciation sounds the same to me.

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Are there a multitude of instances where this elongation of syllables occurs forming new words?

What is a good rule of thumb for remembering such differences?

Is it difficult to differentiate in rushed conversations?

Answer 1

Are there a multitude of instances where this elongation of syllables occurs forming new words?

Yes, there are thousands of word pairs whose only difference is the length of a vowel.

Is it difficult to differentiate in rushed conversations?

Apparently yes for learners, but no for native Japanese speakers. As a native speaker of Japanese, I never thought this was difficult to distinguish even in hasty speech.

What is a good rule of thumb for remembering such differences?

I doubt there is an easy way. You have to be aware how important this distinction is, and you have to familiarize yourself with the Japanese pronunciation system as early as possible. The Japanese language is mora-based. It may take time to understand and get used to it, but it's important. Once you've understood the general rule, this is no longer a big problem.

Seeing from the other side, native Japanese speakers have difficulty distinguishing the difference between the "r" consonant and the "l" consonant. For example, right and light sound identical to Japanese ears. Japanese students who failed to take it seriously at their initial stage of learning Engrish will actuarry keep making stlange sperring ellors rike this for many years. Learning a new language usually involves learning to recognize sounds that are not used or distinguished in your mother tongue.

Related:

• Do native speakers think of prolonged vowels as one long vowel, or two vowel sounds following each other?
• Is it just me, or is "ryokai" pronounced "yokai" regularly?
• Why do Japanese speakers have difficulty pronouncing "L"?