Umai...
 

Hello everyone! :)
I hope you are all having a good day :)

I've just started learning the hiragana alphabet and I try to read the sillabes as they appear on the internet, magazines etc...

I have found for the word "umai" this two written words:
うまい and うまそう.
Is the last a correct writing for "umai"?
And how do you transcribe it in romanj? Is it umasō? And do you pronounce it the same way as umai? I would like to understand...

Sorry for troubling you and thank you for your help.
A big CIAO from Italy :o
flunacy

They are not the same thing. The first one is read UMAI and the second one UMASOU (depending on the romaji system, basically it's a long O sound).
Even the meaning is different. They are both using the root of the adjective "skillful", but assume a meaning slightly different.
(I am not sure if I should explain more since you are just at the very beginning...don't want to confuse you or scare you LOL).

By the way...Ciao dagli States (ma nato e cresciuto a Milano).

Hiragana is always read exactly the same way it is written. It is like Italian like that, rather than English (which is not like that!).

So if you write one うまい and the other うまそう, they are written differently, so they are pronounced differently.

The two exceptions are that, in the most populated areas of Japan, ぢ＝じ and づ＝ず in sound but not writing. I guess, technically, sometimes おう＝おお and ええ＝えい in sound.

But there is no way うまい＝うまそう.

うまそう means "it seems/looks うまい." If you take an い-adjective, drop the い, and add そう, it translates as "it seems/looks ADJECTIVE."

おいしいー＞おいしそう = "it looks delicious"
たのしいー＞たのしそう = "it looks fun"
etc.

Thank you both for your explanations, they were helpful!!!

Have a nice day everyone :) Ciao
flunacy

Ps per chryuop grazie mille e saluti negli States! :)

Hate to get nit-picky, Kyle, but this isn't quite true.

う and い can be pronounced differently when they are used to extend O and E sounds.

For example, the い of せんせい is an extended え sound.

The う of うまそう is an extended お sound (from そ).

That's why I also said "I guess, technically, sometimes おう＝おお and ええ＝えい in sound" in the post, too. But my post was the victim of oversimplification on my part, yes. I probably should have said "usually."

I was just trying to hammer the point home that うまい and うまそう are written fairly differently, so they're going to be pronounced differently.

Sorry, I missed that clarification. I get worried because sometimes I hear (especially self-taughts) say things like "sen-say-ee" or "iko-oo".