Typing みる, やま, and the small ゃ that trips everyone

Yesterday we saw that か becomes が with two dots, and that you type it with the same romaji plus a voiced consonant. The M row and Y row follow the same logic you already know: one kana, one romaji chunk. The only new thing is what happens when a small ゃ, ゅ, or ょ appears next to certain kana.

The M row: ま み む め も

Five kana, five clean romaji.

• ま = ma
• み = mi
• む = mu
• め = me
• も = mo

So みる（みる）— to see — is just mi + ru. やま（やま）— mountain — is ya + ma. むら（むら）— village — is mu + ra. Nothing hidden. If you can type "ma mi mu me mo" you can type the whole row.

A quick check with real words:

• みず（みず）— water
• め（め）— eye
• もり（もり）— forest
• むし（むし）— insect

The Y row: や ゆ よ

Here is where Japanese is kind to you. The Y row has only three kana, not five.

• や = ya
• ゆ = yu
• よ = yo

The sounds yi and ye do not exist in modern standard Japanese, so there is nothing to type. やま（やま）— mountain. ゆき（ゆき）— snow. よる（よる）— night. Three keys, three kana.

The small ゃ ゅ ょ: not separate kana

This is the part that stalls people. A small ゃ, ゅ, or ょ is not its own sound. It glues onto the kana before it and bends that kana's vowel into a y-glide.

Take き (ki). Add small ゃ: きゃ — kya. Add small ゅ: きゅ — kyu. Add small ょ: きょ — kyo.

How do you type it? You do not type the small character separately. You type the consonant plus ya, yu, or yo:

• きゃ = kya
• きゅ = kyu
• きょ = kyo

The keyboard software sees "kya" and produces き plus small ゃ automatically. Same pattern everywhere:

• しゃ = sha (し + small ゃ)
• しゅ = shu
• しょ = sho
• ちゃ = cha
• ちゅ = chu
• ちょ = cho

So しゃしん（しゃしん）— photograph — is sha + shi + n. きょう（きょう）— today — is kyo + u. ちょっと（ちょっと）— a little — is cho + tto.

Notice the last one: ちょっと has a small っ in the middle. That small っ is typed by doubling the next consonant — tto. You met this on day 1, and it stacks neatly with small-y combinations.

What actually trips people

The mistake is trying to type the small ゃ as "ya" on its own. If you type k-i-y-a you get きや — two full kana, ki + ya — not きゃ. The difference is one keystroke and it changes the word.

• きや (ki + ya) — not a common word on its own
• きゃ (kya) — the y-glide

If you are in your city typing a message and the small character refuses to shrink, you almost certainly typed an extra vowel. Drop it and let the romaji do the work.

Here is a sentence you can type right now, no hunting: きょう、しゃしんをみる。— Today, I will look at photographs. Type it as: kyo u, sha shi n wo mi ru. The comma is just 、 on the kana keyboard.

A note on を

The particle を（を）— object marker — is typed as "wo" on most systems, even though it is pronounced "o". You will see it in しゃしんをみる above. It is the one kana whose typing and pronunciation disagree, and it is worth memorising early.

Practice set

Type each of these without looking at the romaji:

• みず（みず）— water
• やま（やま）— mountain
• ゆき（ゆき）— snow
• きょう（きょう）— today
• しゃしん（しゃしん）— photograph
• ちょっと（ちょっと）— a little

If きょう and しゃしん come out cleanly, the small-y pattern has clicked. That is the whole trick: consonant + ya/yu/yo, never a separate small character.