Katakana, 片仮名

Katakana is the second syllabary in Japanese. As with hiragana it is based on 46 basic characters. Katakana is built up the same way as hiragana. The only difference are the slightly different characters. Katakana characters tend to be more geometrical.

Content
  » When is katakana used?
  » Katakana chart
  » Dakuten/Handakuten
  » Yōon modifiers

When is katakana used?
Katakana is mainly used for foreign words and names. Beer is for example called biru, and is written as ビール　in katakana. TV is called terebi, テレビ. Words imitating a sound and scientific terms are also usually written in katakana.

Katakana chart
Table 1 shows the 46 basic katakana. As with hiragana shi (シ), chi (チ), tsu (ツ) and fu (フ) are irregular to the pattern of　pronounciation in katakana. Shi (シ) and tsu (ツ) are easily confused with each other, the small difference is the two strokes in the upper left corner in different angles.

Table 1

Dakuten (濁点) and handakuten (半濁点) markers
The katakana in table 2 are made of katakana from table 1 with a dakuten marker (゛) or handakuten marker (゜) added. The ゛ marker changes k, s, t and h to g, z, d and b. The ゜ marker changes h to p.

Table 2

Copyable katakana chart
	ア a	イ i	ウ u	エ e	オ o
k	カ ka	キ ki	ク ku	ケ ke	コ ko
s	サ sa	シ shi	ス su	セ se	ソ so
t	タ ta	チ chi	ツ tsu	テ te	ト to
n	ナ na	ニ ni	ヌ nu	ネ ne	ノ no
h	ハ ha	ヒ hi	フ fu	ヘ he	ホ ho
m	マ ma	ミ mi	ム mu	メ me	モ mo
y	ヤ ya		ユ yu		ヨ yo
r	ラ ra	リ ri	ル ru	レ re	ロ ro
w	ワ wa				ヲ wo
					ン n

g	ガ ga	ギ gi	グ gu	ゲ ge	ゴ go
z	ザ za	ジ ji	ズ zu	ゼ ze	ゾ zo
d	ダ da	ヂ ji	ヅ zu	デ de	ド do
b	バ ba	ビ bi	ブ bu	ベ be	ボ bo
p	パ pa	ピ pi	プ pu	ペ pe	ポ po

Yōon modifiers, 拗音
Youon katakana follows the same pattern as with youon hiragana.

Copyable chart of yōon modifiers
	ya	yu	yo
ki	キャ kya	キュ kyu	キョ kyo
shi	シャ sha	シュ shu	ショ sho
chi	チャ cha	チュ chu	チョ cho
ni	ニャ nya	ニュ nyu	ニョ nyo
hi	ヒャ hya	ヒュ hyu	ヒョ hyo
mi	ミャ mya	ミュ myu	ミョ myo
ri	リャ rya	リュ ryu	リョ ryo
gi	ギャ gya	ギュ gyu	ギョ gyo
ji	ジャ ja	ジュ ju	ジョ jo
ji	ヂャ ja	ヂュ ju	ヂョ jo
bi	ビャ bya	ビュ byu	ビョ byo
pi	ピャ pya	ピュ pyu	ピョ pyo
Table 3

Double consonants
Double consonants are written the same way as hiragana, but with a small ッ (tsu) in katakana instead. Taking the examples from hiragana to demonstrate it in use:
カッタ - katta
ハッパ　- happa

« Hiragana | Survival Japanese »

Basics

Search the site