Katakana

Katakana is the second of the two scripts exclusive to the Japanese language. Like hiragana, katakana consists of a total of 46 basic characters that each represent a basic Japanese syllable. Some of these characters can be modified and/or combined so that the most basic total of syllables in the script is 104. However, there are a number of additional katakana combinations that may appear frequently in your reading material. This is because of the nature of katakana.

Katakana was originally developed—and is still used—for times when the Japanese writer wanted to highlight or call special attention to a Japanese word. This is sort of like the equivalent to ALL CAPS, bolding, underlining, italicizing, or highlighting a word in English. For example, when a Japanese writer wants to write the joyful cry “yatta!” (“all right!”), the writer can write the word in hiragana: やった! However, since someone is probably screaming this joyful cry, the Japanese writer would most likely write the word in katakana: ヤッタ! This makes much more of an impact with the Japanese reader.

Katakana is also the script used to write these loan words in Japanese. Any foreign word—other than Chinese words (as the Japanese kanji alphabet is taken from the Chinese alphabet, Chinese words are naturally written in kanji, even in Japanese)—is most likely written in katakana. This includes a phonetic pronunciation of foreign words for the native Japanese speaker learning a foreign language (just as we use romaji—putting the Japanese word in our own familiar Roman alphabet—to help us learn Japanese words), foreign names and places, and loan words that are similarly pronounced to the original source word but are considered part of the Japanese language, despite originating in a foreign language.

Many of the katakana characters share an angular, simplified resemblance to their hiragana counterparts. Since all hiragana syllables are naturally found in katakana (but not vice-versa), it’s easier to learn hiragana first. Because of these two reasons, make sure you have mastered hiragana before you proceed.

Below is a table of some example words commonly written in katakana:

English	Romaji	Katakana
taxi	takushii	タクシー
Chicago	shikago	シカゴ
America	amerika	アメリカ
hotel	hoteru	ホテル

Unless your name is Japanese or Chinese in origin, your name is written in katakana. Unless you were born in Japan or China, your country and city are written in katakana. Katakana takes a little more work to learn than hiragana, but it’s essential to be able to read even basic conversations in Japanese. So let’s get to work! (It’ll be easier and more fun to learn than you think!)

Let’s Learn

Let’s start with the 46 basic katakana characters. Once you learn to read these characters, learning the rest of the syllables will be much easier!

Click on the character to hear it!

Katakana characters are much more angular and simplified than hiragana characters. The only disadvantage of this is that some characters look so much alike, you’ll find yourself confusing them at first! Be careful especially of differentiating “shi” シ and “tsu” ツ (the two dashes are a little more horizontal in “shi” シ than in “tsu” ツ) and “so” ソ and “n” ン (the dash in “so” ソis a little more vertical than in “n” ン).

Like with hiragana, you’ll sometimes see a small “tsu” ッin a word, which you shouldn’t confuse with the large “tsu” ツ. The small “tsu” ッ indicates that the consonant before it should be lengthened, and the proper romanization of a word with a small “tsu” ッ is to double the consonant. In katakana, “kitto” is written キット, not キツト, and “issei” is written イッセイ, not イツセイ.

Katakana has another component that acts similarly to the small “tsu” ッ that doesn’t exist in traditional hiragana. This is the chouonfu, or “dash,” which is used to lengthen consonant sounds in mostly foreign words. (Whereas the small “tsu” ッ is used more often when you’re writing a native Japanese word in katakana to make the word stand out.) The chouonfu has no pronunciation and looks like this: ー. The word “takushii” (“taxi”) has the chouonfu in it: タクシイー. This indicates that the “i” sound at the end should be lengthened when pronouncing the word.

Sometimes you will also see the nakaguro, a dot that looks like this:・. This is an exclusive character in the katakana alphabet with no pronunciation that marks separate words (for the native Japanese speaker, who may not understand where one foreign word ends and another begins). For example, “John Jones” becomes “jon・jonzu” ジョン・ジョンズ. The nakaguro is optional if it’s clear where one word ends and another begins.

Next: Extended Set