Katakana - As mentioned in Lesson 1, Katakana (as seen in the chart below) is mainly used for foreign words such

h as foreign names and words that have been borrowed from other languages such as (kompyu-ta- = computer). Katakana is the least frequently used of the three character sets in Japanese. The Japanese language does not have as many sounds as the English language so, when creating a name in Katakana, for instance, the name must be sound out to the closest Japanese equivalent. Katakana, Hiragana, and Furigana (when Hiragana is written small next to a Kanji character to show how that character is read) are collectively known as Kana. Don't worry too much about Katakana (beyond maybe learning your name) for now. There are some special Katakana characters that exist only for foreign names (such as (she) or (ti)). These special characters are not in the chart below (which contains only the standard set of Katakana characters) but can be seen in our Names in Japanese lesson. There are also the characters (wi) and (we) which were deemed obsolete in 1946.

Combinations

ka

ki

ku

ke

ko

kya

kyu

kyo

ga

gi

gu

ge

go

gya

gyu

gyo

sa

shi

su

se

so

sha

shu

sho

za

ji

zu

ze

zo

ja

ju

jo

ta

chi

tsu

te

to

cha

chu

cho

da

ji

zu

de

do

nya

nyu

nyo

na

ni

nu

ne

no

hya

hyu

hyo

ha

hi

fu

he

ho

bya

byu

byo

ba

bi

bu

be

bo

pya

pyu

pyo

pa

pi

pu

pe

po

mya

myu

myo


ma

mi

mu

me

mo

rya

ryu

ryo

ya

yu

yo

ra

ri

ru

re

ro

wa

wo

n/m

Hiragana - The first step to learning the Japanese language is to learn the alphabet. Or, at least, to learn the sounds that exist in the language. There are absolutely no "tones" in Japanese like in many other asian languages and there are only 2 exceptions within the alphabet which will be explained later. The Japanese alphabet does not contain letters but, instead, contains characters and, technically, they are not alphabets but character sets. The characters in the chart below are called Hiragana. Hiragana is the main alphabet or character set for Japanese. Japanese also consists of two other character sets - Kanji (Chinese characters), which we will get into later, and another alphabet/character set, Katakana, which is mainly used for foreign words. Katakana will be covered in Lesson 2. Don't wait to move on until you have all Hiragana characters memorized - learn them as you continue to go through the other lessons. There are 5 vowels in Japanese. (a), pronounced "ahh", (i), pronounced like "e" in "eat", (u), pronounced like "oo" in "soon", (e), pronounced like "e" in "elk", and (o), pronounced "oh". All Hiragana characters end with one of these vowels, with the exception of (n). The only "consonant" that does not resemble that of English is the Japanese "r". It is slightly "rolled" as if it were a combination of a "d", "r", and "l".

Combinations

ka

ki

ku

ke

ko

kya

kyu

kyo

ga

gi

gu

ge

go

gya

gyu

gyo

sa

shi

su

se

so

sha

shu

sho

za

ji

zu

ze

zo

ja

ju

jo

cha

chu

cho

ta

chi

tsu

te

to

da

ji

zu

de

do

nya

nyu

nyo

na

ni

nu

ne

no

hya

hyu

hyo

ha

hi

fu

he

ho

bya

byu

byo

ba

bi

bu

be

bo

pya

pyu

pyo

pa

pi

pu

pe

po

mya

myu

myo

ma

mi

mu

me

mo

rya

ryu

ryo

ya

yu

yo

ra

ri

ru

re

ro

wa

wo

n/m

Here is a Printable Hiragana Chart (PDF - get Adobe Acrobat Reader). Exceptions: 1. The Hiragana (ha) is pronounced "wa" when it immediately follows the topic of the sentence. This character is usually only pronounced "ha" when it is part of a word. 2. The Hiragana (he) is pronounced "e" when it immediately follows a place or direction. Both of these are very simple to detect. Click here if you'd like to know why these two exceptions exist. Note: You probably noticed in the chart above that there are 2 characters pronounced "zu" and 2 characters pronounced "ji". The characters (zu) and (ji) are very rarely used. (zu) only occurs when there is a (tsu) in front of it like in (tsuzuku - to continue) or when a Kanji (Chinese character) that has a reading which starts with (tsu) is paired at the end with another character changing the (tsu) to a (zu). The same applies for the Hiragana (ji). Since they are used so rarely I wouldn't worry about them too much. I will let you know whenever we come upon a word in which they are used. Some people wonder why "yi", "ye", "wi", "wu", and "we" are missing. There aren't

characters for "yi", "ye", or "wu". There is a (wi) and a (we) but these were deemed obsolete in 1946 and were replaced by (i) and (e) respectively.

Read the tables from top to bottom, and from left to right. You can remember the proper order for the basic kana characters with the saying: Here's my two techniques on how to memorize the characters easily. 1) "Kana Signs, Take Note How Much You Read and Write them." 2) KaSaTaNaHaMaYaRaWaN. Once you memorize these secret keywords, you can easily remember other characters on the line. You need also to memorize the top keyword "a i u e o", and this is use for pairing the vertical and horizontal characters. Just remember that vowels are first and end up with the character "n".

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