Double consonants
Notice the "tt" in janakatta. Double consonants (tt in this case) prolong or stretch the pronunciation of the consonant (t in this case. press "r" to play the audio again). They only exist in the latin transcription, but always result from a "small tsu"-charcter in written Japanese:ka = か, ta = た, so:
"kata" in Japanese looks like this: かた
"katta" in Japanese looks like this: かった
The "っ" in the middle is the small tsu character (here it is next to the large one: つっ). This one is responsible for the prolonged "t". This can also happen for other consonant-based characters, I'll show you more examples.
[Something (e.g. something on your mind or something nice that has happened)] wasn't a dream.
"janakatta" is the negative, past form of "da".
More from Tae Kim's Japanese Grammar
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