Learn Katakana
There are 3 alphabetes in Japanese:Hiragana,KatakanaandKanji.
Katakanais the exact equivalent ofHiraganawhen it comes to pronounciation. The main difference is how the characters look and when they are used. They look completely different fromHiraganaand are more angular. Only a few characters look similar (like か -hiragana / カ -katakana). They are used for foregin or loan words.
a - ア
i - イ
u - ウ
e - エ
o - オ
ka - カ
ki - キ
ku - ク
ke - ケ
ko - コ
sa - サ
shi - シ
su - ス
se - セ
so - ソ
ta - タ
chi - チ
tsu - ツ
te - テ
to - ト
na - ナ
ni - ニ
nu - ヌ
ne - ネ
no - ノ
ha - ハ
hi - ヒ
fu - フ
he - ヘ
ho - ホ
ma - マ
mi - ミ
mu - ム
me - メ
mo - モ
ya - ヤ
yu - ユ
yo - ヨ
ra - ラ
ri - リ
ru - ル
re - レ
ro - ロ
wa - ワ
wi - ヰ
we - ヱ
wo - ヲ
n - ン
Dakuten and Handakuten
Now that you know how to draw the characters, you should also know something about theDakuten (゛)andHandakuten (ﾟ).
These dyacritics will change a bit some of the vowels we've just learned:
ウ (U)used with the dakuten (゛) will becomeヴ (vu/bu/v)
サ (Sa)used with the dakuten (゛) will becomeザ (Za)
シ (Shi)used with the dakuten (゛) will becomeジ (Dji)
ス (Su)used with the dakuten (゛) will becomeズ (Zu)
セ (Se)used with the dakuten (゛) will becomeゼ (Ze)
ソ (So)used with the dakuten (゛) will becomeゾ (Zo)
タ (Ta)used with the dakuten (゛) will becomeダ (Da)
チ (Chi)used with the dakuten (゛) will becomeヂ (Ji)
ツ (Tsu)used with the dakuten (゛) will becomeヅ (Zu)
テ (Te)used with the dakuten (゛) will becomeデ (De)*The character テ also has a variant namely ソ
ト (To)used with the dakuten (゛) will becomeド (Do)
ハ (Ha)used with the dakuten (゛) will becomeバ (Ba)ハ (Ha)used with the handakuten (ﾟ) will becomeパ (Pa)
ヒ (Hi)used with the dakuten (゛) will becomeビ (Bi)ヒ (Hi)used with the handakuten (ﾟ) will becomeピ (Pi)
フ (Fu)used with the dakuten (゛) will becomeブ (Bu)フ (Fu)used with the handakuten (ﾟ) will becomeプ (Pu)
へ (He)used with the dakuten (゛) will becomeべ (Be)へ (He)used with the handakuten (ﾟ) will becomeぺ (Pe)
ホ (Ho)used with the dakuten (゛) will becomeボ (Bo)ホ (Ho)used with the handakuten (ﾟ) will becomeポ (Po)
Katakana Dyagraphs
Just likeHiragana, Katakana has its owndyagraphs. Let's have a look at them:
イェ (Ye)
ウィ (Wi)
ウェ (We)
ウォ (Wo)
ヴァ (Va)
ヴィ (Vi)
ヴェ (Ve)
ヴォ (Vo)
シェ (She)
ジェ (Dje)
シェ (Tche)
ファ (Fa)
フィ (Fi)
フェ (Fe)
フォ (Fo)
キャ (Kya)
キュ (Kyu)
キョ (Kyo)
ギャ (Gya)
ギュ (Kyu)
ギョ (Gyo)
シャ (Shya)
シュ (Shyu)
ショ (Shyo)
ジャ (Jya)
ジュ (Jyu)
ジョ (Jyo)
チャ (Chya)
チュ (Chyu)
チョ (Chyo)
ニャ (Nya)
ニュ (Nyu)
ニョ (Nyo)
ヒャ (Hya)
ヒュ (Hyu)
ヒョ (Hyo)
ビャ (Bya)
ビュ (Byu)
ビョ (Byo)
ピャ (Pya)
ピュ (Pyu)
ピョ (Pyo)
ミャ (Mya)
ミュ (Myu)
ミョ (Myo)
リャ (Rya)
リュ (Ryu)
リョ (Ryo)
Practice time!
Practice makes perfect so for starters I will give you some words with the katakana characters.
カカア (cocoa)
エコ (eco friendly)
ケーキ (cake)
オーケー (okay)
イケてる (cool/sexy)
ウイスキー (whiskey)
アジア (Asia)
ソース (sauce/source)
デート (romantic date)
チーズ (cheese)
サッカー (soccer)
スイッチ (switch)
コーヒー (coffee)
ビジネス (business)
ベース (bass)
デジカメ (digital camera)
メキシコ (Mexico)
スマホ (smartphone)
ゲーム (game)
ジュース (juice)
メニュー (menu)
チョコレート (chocolate)
バーベキュー (barbecue)
Tシャツ (t-shirt)
エアコン (air conditioneer)
コンタクト (contact lenses)
コンビニ (convenience store)
プレゼント (present)
Writing time!
Let's see if you can recognize the characters correctly
As a final practice material, I will also give you this cute little table with katakana characters:
