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While learning Katakana, I was instructed to try and translate my name Todd. I
ended up with トド.

When I look it up online, I see トッド everywhere. ッ appears to be 'tsu'.

I think I am missing something about combined characters. Can anyone provide
some clarification?
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2019-09-19T00:28:40.937
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2019-09-19T01:18:24.150
2019-09-19T01:18:24.150
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question
translation katakana names orthography gemination
What is the middle character in Todd (Katakana)
The "small _tsu_ " ッ is not pronounced _tsu_ , but rather represents
[gemination](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemination).

The rule of thumb is that a final D gets transliterated as ッド (and a final T
as ット)

  * bed → ベッド
  * pad → パッド
  * good → グッド
  * god → ゴッド

As you probably learned, this is part of a set of rules of thumb, which deal
with final consonants in transliteration, since (except for ン) there are no
_kana_ without a vowel at the end.

As Japanese phonetics allow for /u/ to be almost silent, naturally _kana_ from
the /-u/-column in the _kana_ chart (e.g. ク, ス, フ, etc.) would be good
candidates to simulate final consonants. However, for /du/ or /tu/ this does
not work, as these are pronounced _zu_ and _tsu_ and so here one uses the
_kana_ from the /-o/-column instead.

I guess the small _tsu_ ッ is added to make the ド sound more "dry", i.e. more
like a consonant and less like a syllable.

See also

  * [How did "little tsu" become a lengthener?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/751/1628)
  * [Why was つ originally used to mark consonant gemination? When was that?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/39312/1628)
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2019-09-19T01:17:02.217
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2019-09-19T01:17:02.217
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answer