Learn katakana: foreign sounds, traps and your name in Japanese
Katakana have exactly the same sounds as hiragana, with sharper shapes: learn them together, row by row. They are mostly used for words from other languages (コーヒー, coffee; テレビ, TV), foreign names and onomatopoeia. This guide covers what is specific to them.
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What's different from hiragana
- The bar ー lengthens the vowel: コーヒー kōhī, スーパー sūpā (supermarket).
- A small ッ doubles the consonant, as in hiragana: ベッド (beddo, bed).
- Combinations for sounds Japanese doesn't have: ティ ti, ディ di, ファ fa, フィ fi, ウィ wi, ジェ je, ヴ vu.
- The same number of characters: 46 basic ones, 113 with variants and combinations in KanaLearn's chart.
The pairs that trap everyone
シ (shi) and ツ (tsu), ソ (so) and ン (n) look very alike. The trick: look at the stroke direction. In シ and ン the short strokes are flatter and the long stroke rises from the bottom; in ツ and ソ they fall from the top and the long stroke goes down.
Other pairs to drill: ク / ケ / タ, ウ / ワ / フ, ア / マ, ヌ / ス, チ / テ.
Your name in katakana
Foreign names are written in katakana from how they sound, not how they're spelled:
| Name | Katakana | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| Emma | エマ | ema |
| Liam | リアム | riamu |
| Olivia | オリビア | oribia |
| Noah | ノア | noa |
| Sophie | ソフィー | sofī |
| James | ジェームズ | jēmuzu |
Learn by reading words
Katakana stick well with real words, since you often know them already in English: アイスクリーム (ice cream), ピザ (pizza), ホテル (hotel), カメラ (camera), レストラン (restaurant). Decoding a menu or a label quickly becomes a game.
Practise
FAQ
- Why two syllabaries?
- Hiragana write Japanese words and grammar, katakana write foreign words, foreign names and onomatopoeia. You need both, and they're best learned together.
- Are katakana harder?
- A little, because you see them less often and some look alike. Learning them together with hiragana, then reviewing regularly, fixes that.
Remember them for good
Quizzes, writing, listening and spaced reviews: KanaLearn has you review each word at the right time. Free, no ads.
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