Learning japanese and confused on pronunciation of a word


So duolingo is what I'm using to help memorize and learn hiragana at the
moment. However, when the ask me to write alcohol, sake, sometimes they say it
as osake, is this still right or should I just pronounce it as sake?




Osake and sake both are referring to alcoholic beverages, and are both
correct. The kanji for these would be お酒 and 酒, respecitvely. As you can see,
there is an お / o in front of the kanji. This is because Japanese sometimes
adds honorific prefixes, such as お / o and ご / go, to certain words to make
them more polite. However, some words have completely different meanings
without the honorifics, such as お巡りさん (omawarisan).

As a general observation, between sake and osake, most people say osake when
referring to alcoholic beverages. Although, beer and wine are referred to as
ビール and ワイン, respectively, and お酒 / 酒 usually only refers to Japanese
alcoholic beverages. In some cases though, お酒 / 酒 can encompass alcoholic
beverages in general, including beer and wine.

