N5 Course
Chapter 1

Katakana Explained

Complete & Continue Next Lesson Learn More

カタカナ:

An introduction to katakana

カタカナkatakana are another alphabet used in Japanese. You might have already noticed that the カタカナkatakana characters are the same sounds as the ひらがなhiragana characters. All that’s different is the character itself, and the use.....
Writing foreign words!
Emphasis (similar to using italics)
例えば: Romaji: tatoebaEnglish: For exampleClass: Kanji

私Romaji: watashiEnglish: IClass: KanjiはRomaji: waClass: hiraganaイギリスRomaji: igirisuEnglish: BritishClass: Katakana人Romaji: jinEnglish: PersonClass: KanjiですRomaji: desuEnglish: Is/ Am/ AreClass: Hiragana。
I am an English person.

  • Wait, is ‘イギリス’ Britain or England?

    "イギリス" in Japanese means both Britain and England.

  • It came from the Portuguese word for England…

    …but in Japan, it ended up being used for the whole UK.

  • This mix-up happened because back when the word was borrowed…

    …people in Japan didn't really differentiate between England and the rest of Britain.

Borrowed words make up a small portion of the Japanese language. For example, the popular food item ‘Ramen’, often associated with Japan actually originates in China. As the term is borrowed from Chinese, we write it in katakana: ラーメンramen.
A lot of words are recognisable for English speakers, such as カメラKamera , テレビRomaji: terebiEnglish: TV and アイスクリームRomaji: aisukurimuEnglish: Ice cream.
Don't over think whether it's a borrowed word, or you'll go down the rabbit hole of 'it was borrowed from China 1000 years ago... is it カタカナ？！' Simply, if it's introduced in カタカナ, you write it with カタカナ.

The katakana chart

Let’s take a look!

  • The characters on the katakana chart make the same sounds as the hiragana chart, however they’re written different.

  • A lot of characters look slightly similar to their Hiragana counterparts!

Hiragana Chart
A I U E O a u o
ア イ ゥ エ オ Combos below stem from the いi column
K カ キ ク ケ コ ky キャ キュ キョ
S サ シ ス セ ソ sh シャ シュ ショ
T タ チ ツ テ ト ch チャ チュ チョ
N ナ ニ ヌ ネ ノ ny ニャ ニュ ニョ
H ハ ヒ フ ヘ ホ hy ヒャ ヒュ ヒョ
M マ ミ ム メ モ my ミャ ミュ ミョ
Y ヤ ユ ヨ
R ラ リ ル レ ロ ry リャ リュ リョ
W ワ ヲ
ン
G ガ ギ グ ゲ ゴ gy ギャ ギュ ギョ
Z ザ ジ ズ ゼ ゾ jy ジャ ジュ ジョ
D ダ ヂ ヅ デ ド jy ヂャ ヂュ ヂョ
B バ ビ ブ べ ボ by ビャ ビュ ビョ
P パ ピ プ ぺ ポ jy ピャ ピュ ピョ
Of course, you can’t write a word like ‘hamburger’ exactly with these characters, you need to 'Japanese-ify' it. This would look like ハンバーガー.
It’s very strange at first saying English words like this. However, it will help Japanese people understand you. Infact, don’t be surprised if you get blank looks asking for a ‘hamburger’, but understood when asking for a ハンバーガー (han-baa-gaa).

  • We will study Katakana from lesson 11 in the same format used for hiragana!

    For now, you put it to the back of your mind or self study the chart before lesson 11!