I finished going through N4 recently and am reviewing everything I learned. I feel like ma is more difficult to master than everything else. The sound changes all seem random to me. Any advice?
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For some of them there are rules that might help and that aren’t specific to this grammar point.
For example, the small っ normally doesn’t occur before vowels, so in something like 真っ青 or 真っ赤 we can at least expect that it’s not the ”normal” reading.
It also generally doesn’t appear before m or n, and ん is used instead. This also applies to other words where the romanization would have a double n or m.
It also doesn’t normally appear before h or before voiced consonants, so e.g. in 真っ平 that only leaves まっぴら as the only option.
But in some cases it’s just unknown where the change comes from. E.g. the extra S in 真っ青 (まっさお)、真っ新 (まっさら) can also show up in other words even without a small っ like 春雨 (はるさめ) or 荒稲 (あらしね) but I don’t think anyone knows where it comes from.
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You can also just learn the words individually of which there isn’t many tbh. That’s the easier way
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