Katakana
Katakana, as already mentioned, is mainly used to represent words imported from other languages. We've already learned all the sounds when we learned Hiragana. All you need to learn is a different way of writing them.
| n | w | r | y | m | h | n | t | s | k | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ン (n) |
ワ | ラ | ヤ | マ | ハ | ナ | タ | サ | カ | ア | a |
| リ | ミ | ヒ | ニ | チ (chi) |
シ (shi) |
キ | イ | i | |||
| ル | ユ | ム | フ (fu) |
ヌ | ツ (tsu) |
ス | ク | ウ | u | ||
| レ | メ | ヘ | ネ | テ | セ | ケ | エ | e | |||
| ヲ* (o) |
ロ | ヨ | モ | ホ | ノ | ト | ソ | コ | オ | o |
* = rarely used
Due to the straight lines and relatively few strokes, there are many characters in Katakana that look very similar. In particular, 「シ」、「ツ」 「ソ」、and 「ン」. You should pay careful attention to the stroke order and direction. You may also notice that the Katakana 「ヘ」 is virtually identical to its Hiragana counterpart 「へ」. They are in fact, written pretty much the same way. Below are handy PDFs for writing practice.
English words in Japanese
Many words from foreign languages, particularly English, have become part of the Japanese language via Katakana throughout the years. However, there are relatively few distinct sounds in Japanese and only five vowel sounds. As a result, these words usually don't bear much resemblance to their original pronunciations. An important thing to remember is to stay true to the Japanese pronunciation and completely forget how it's really supposed to be pronounced. To give you an idea, here is a short list of foreign words and their Japanese equivalents.
| English | Japanese |
|---|---|
| America | アメリカ |
| Russia | ロシア |
| bus | バス |
| motorcycle | バイク |
| French fries | フライドポテト (fried potato) |
Why is "ココロ"(kokoro/heart)
Why is "ココロ"(kokoro/heart) read with katakana and not kanji or hirigana?
In Japan, represents a
In Japan, represents a special meaning to write in katakana.
It shouldn't be. It's 心. What
It shouldn't be. It's 心. What are you referring to?
Because Kokoro is a foreign
Because Kokoro is a foreign word and as Tae Kim said, katakana is a form of writing for foreign words imported into japan (I think~~:))
nope, they use katakana for
nope, they use katakana for kanji words just like 心 as a given example to give much more emphasis than it would normally be.
In fact, "kokoro" is not a
In fact, "kokoro" is not a foreign word, but it's acceptable to write it with katakana. Katakana is not used only to write words from another idioms, it is also used when you want to emphasize a word. In this case, it's clear that katakana was used to emphasize "kokoro".
y is d stroke order so
y is d stroke order so important??
The stroke order is important
The stroke order is important because there are multiple similar characters. Such as 「シ」 and 「ツ」。 The lines are so similar the way you stroke defines what it is. \(^0^)/
-エレイナ
Think about it. The way you
Think about it. The way you write in your own language without thinking about the letters-it comes out fluently. The more you write these kana the more you will improve the muscle memory to write them. But that comes with stroke order and not guess work.
Why are there some characters
Why are there some characters missing in the list at the top? I'm not sure how many are absent, but I know the 'P' row isn't there. Is it not supposed to be?
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