1)Be careful with LONG VOWEL in Roomaji writing
Really in Japanese:
ほんとう＝hoNTOO=本当
But Japanese very often say
ほんと？honTO?（or ほんとに？honTONI?）=Really?
「ありがと=Thanks」appears very often in manga for broken way.
We can omit long vowel marker＜in this case:う＞ in such VERY familiar sentences–arigatoo sayoonara.
「とうきょう＝TOKYO」is written in this way(When I was 8-9 years old,I learned <Tōkyō>in the school textbook. So I was really surprised at the writing <no macron> way after grown up.I got used to that now,thought)
So we have many ways to write TOKYO.
(1)Tōkyō
(2)To-kyo-
(3)Tookyoo
(4)Toukyou
(5)Tohkyoh
(6)Tokyo
We write Tokyo in abbreviation way like (6).
I write TOKYO toOKYOO in this textbook
So if you have chance to read rooma-ji,they ALL have possibility contains abbreviation of long marker！
KOban is a former oval gold coin.
Police station’s correct pronunciation is koOBAN=こうばん。
(I don’t get used such one even now.)
We have some rare cases(hoNTO & hoNTOO) but basicly long vowel makes big difference.
ビル BIru beer
ビールBIiru building
スキ suKI to like(すき）
スキーsuKIi skiing
すきSuki is written in ひらがな normally but we can see often katakana way of writing in manga.I choose katakana way to compare with <ski>in this case.
ここ koKO here/Coco curry
こうこう koOKOO high school
はと HAto dove/pigeon
ハート haATO heart
かど KAdo corner
カード KAado card
サイコ SAiko psycho
さいこう saIKOO awesome
おじさん oJISAN uncle
おじいさんoJIisan grand father
まく maKU to roll(maKI・ZUSHI)
マーク MAaku mark
マック MAkku Mac