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I apoligize for the dumb question, I just started learning recently.

But I'm using memrise to help me learn Japanese, and what I've learned is that
ち = "chi", ょ = "yo", う = "u", し = "shi".

Based on that, wouldn't that translate to "chiyoushi"?

Or does ち mean "chi/ch", and ょ mean "yo/o"?

Thanks!
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kana
Why does ちょうし translate to "choushi"?
ちょ is what we call a digraph; notice that the よ is small, not full-sized. If
you wanted to write "chiyoshi," it would have to be ちようし, not ちょうし. I'm not
going to list every digraph and their Romanizations/pronunciations here
because there are tons of them, but if you check the Wikipedia articles for
Katakana and Hiragana, there should be a chart of all of them.
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<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y%C5%8Don>

> Yōon or Youon (拗音?, contracted word or diphthong) is a feature of the
> Japanese language in which a mora is formed with an added [j] sound, i.e.,
> palatalized.

  

ちゃ cha ちゅ chu ちょ cho

```

      --- This is odd.  This row doesn't include 「ちぇ」  as in チェ・ゲバラ 
    
```

Ok, it's explained in the Jp Wikipedia page :

> 開拗音 == 開拗音は「あ行」と「わ行」を除く行のい段の仮名1文字に小文字の「ゃ」「ゅ」「ょ」のうちの1文字を付けて仮名2文字で表記される。
> なお「シ」、「チ」または「ジ」に「ェ」を付けて表記される「シェ」「チェ」「ジェ」は対立する直音があるのでこれらを拗音に含めるとの考え方もあるが、外来語のみであることや部分的で音韻体系全般にわたるものでないことから拗音に含めない考え方もある。
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In modern Japanese orthography, there's a distinction between the following
pairs:

```

     ちゃ　ちや
     ちょ　ちよ
     ちゅ　ちゆ
    
```

The characters on the left are called colloquially 小さいよ、小さいや、小さいゆ
respectively. The small one signifies a diphthong (i.e., it is pronounced "cha
cho chu" vs "chiya chiyo chiyu"). More properly, the characters themselves are
called
[小書き文字](http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1163793136)
and in Japanese the process is called
[[拗音]{ようおん}](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y%C5%8Don).

Thus, what you are reading is not ちようし but ちょうし (with the small version) read
as "choushi". (If you are reading something pre-War or so, it's possible that
this predates the small characters. If so, it is still read choushi -- you
just had to know that then).
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