We write words borrowed from China with kanjis, original Japanese words and words borrowed from China with kanjis and hiraganas, and foreign words borrowed from countries other than China with katakanas. We also use katakanas to write sound words (onomatopoeias), to add emphasis, and to point out that something is unusual. Thus, words with no original Japanese counterpart, like ‘samba’ or ‘computer’ are always written in katakana but, moreover, in many cases foreign words for which there is a Japanese counterpart are still katakanized. For example, the Japanese word for ‘sugar’ is さとう (satou), but we still need to katakanize it as シュガー (shugaa) to write, say, ‘Sugar Ray Leonard’ (シュガー・レイ・レナード) or ‘Sugar Bowl’ (シュガーボウル). Likewise, there are Japanese words for ‘park’ (こうえん) and ‘egg’ (たまご), but we still need to katakanize them to write ‘Jurassic Park’ and ‘eggs benedict’, i.e., ジュラシック・パーク (jurashikku-paaku) and エッグベネディクト (eggubenedikuto). The same applies to every non-chinese foreign word, regardless of whether there is a Japanese word for it.

from kanji to katakana

Katakana was created in the 9th century by Buddhist monks. As with hiragana, katakana uses kanjis whose kun-yomi (Japanese reading) or on-yomi (Chinese reading) is one of the 46 base Japanese sounds as the starting point for the design of its characters. Hence, it is not surprising that in two-thirds of the cases the corresponding characters of hiragana and katakana were based on the same kanji; these pairs are shown in red:

		a			i			u			e			o
	hir.	kat.		hir.	kat.		hir.	kat.		hir.	kat.		hir.	kat.
	あ	ア		い	イ		う	ウ		え	エ		お	オ
k	か	カ		き	キ		く	ク		け	ケ		こ	コ
s	さ	サ		し	シ		す	ス		せ	セ		そ	ソ
t	た	タ		ち	チ		つ	ツ		て	テ		と	ト
n	な	ナ		に	ニ		ぬ	ヌ		ね	ネ		の	ノ
h	は	ハ		ひ	ヒ		ふ	フ		へ	ヘ		ほ	ホ
m	ま	マ		み	ミ		む	ム		め	メ		も	モ
y	や	ヤ					ゆ	ユ					よ	ヨ
r	ら	ラ		り	リ		る	ル		れ	レ		ろ	ロ
w	わ	ワ											を	ヲ
n	ん	ン

As we might expect, when the two syllabaries based their corresponding characters on different kanjis, any resemblance between the characters is coincidental so, in general, such characters don’t resemble each other:

sound	hiragana	hiragana orig. kanji	katakana	katakana orig. kanji
mi	み	美	ミ	三
su	す	寸	ス	須
ta	た	太	タ	多

Sometimes, when both syllabaries used the same kanji as the base for the corresponding characters, the characters resemble each other:

sound	original kanji	hiragana	katakana
ya	也	や	ヤ
mo	毛	も	モ
se	世	せ	セ

However, it is often the case that the corresponding characters do not resemble each other even if they were derived from the same kanji:

sound	original kanji	hiragana	katakana
me	女	め	メ
to	止	と	ト
fu	不	ふ	フ
ne	祢	ね	ネ

This difference comes from the methods used to create the hiragana and katakana characters: hiragana uses scripting, while katakana uses fragmentation. Hiragana characters are the entire original kanji simplified via cursive scripting, while katakana characters are unmodified fragments of the original kanji. Actually, ‘kata-kana’ in kanji is 片仮名, with 片 (kata) meaning ‘fragment’, and 仮名 (kana) meaning ‘Japanese syllabary’. For example, hiragana scripts the kanji 女 (me) into the stylized め, while katakana fragments it and takes its original lower-half set of strokes to create メ.

The following are the kanjis from which the monks derived the katakana characters:

	kanji	a		kanji	i		kanji	u		kanji	e		kanji	o
	阿	ア		伊	イ		宇	ウ		江	エ		於	オ
k	加	カ		機	キ		久	ク		介	ケ		己	コ
s	散	サ		之	シ		須	ス		世	セ		曽	ソ
t	多	タ		千	チ		川	ツ		天	テ		止	ト
n	奈	ナ		仁	ニ		奴	ヌ		祢	ネ		乃	ノ
h	八	ハ		比	ヒ		不	フ		部	ヘ		保	ホ
m	夫	マ		三	ミ		牟	ム		女	メ		毛	モ
y	也	ヤ					由	ユ					與	ヨ
r	良	ラ		利	リ		流	ル		礼	レ		呂	ロ
w	和	ワ											乎	ヲ
n	尓	ン

base characters

Katakana has a set of base characters that provides a basic set of sounds. We can follow some of these characters with a small ヤ (ya), ユ (yu), or ヨ (yo), to obtain new sounds, e.g., if we follow the キ (ki) with a small ヤ (ya) we get キャ (kya).

+ヤ

+ユ

+ヨ

ア

a

イ

i

ウ

u

エ

e

オ

o

k

カ

ka

キ

ki

ク

ku

ケ

ke

コ

ko

キャ

kya

キュ

kyu

キョ

kyo

s

サ

sa

シ

shi

ス

su

セ

se

ソ

so

シャ

sha

シュ

shu

ショ

sho

t

タ

ta

チ

chi

ツ

tsu

テ

te

ト

to

チャ

cha

チュ

chu

チョ

cho

t

テュ

tyu

n

ナ

na

ニ

ni

ヌ

nu

ネ

ne

ノ

no

ニャ

nya

ニュ

nyu

ニョ

nyo

h

ハ

ha

ヒ

hi

フ

fu

ヘ

he

ホ

ho

ヒャ

hya

ヒュ

hyu

ヒョ

hyo

m

マ

ma

ミ

mi

ム

mu

メ

me

モ

mo

ミャ

mya

ミュ

myu

ミョ

myo

y

ヤ

ya

ユ

yu

ヨ

yo

r

ラ

ra

リ

ri

ル

ru

レ

re

ロ

ro

リャ

rya

リュ

ryu

リョ

ryo

w

ワ

wa

ヲ

wo

n

ン

ｎ

• Japanese has the sounds シ (shi), チ (chi), and ツ (tsu), instead of ‘si’, ‘ti’ and ‘tu’, which it doesn’t have
• The character ヲ (wo) is rarely used
• ‘te + yu’ (テュ) is ‘tyu’, which is not a Japanese sound, so it doesn’t have a hiragana counterpart.
• フ is usually written as the sound ‘fu’, but its actually closer to ‘hu’, or to the English word who spoken just blowing air, without changing the shape of the mouth (see pronunciation).

ten-ten (“) and maru (°)

As in hiragana, to allow more sounds, we can mark some characters with double quotes (“, a.k.a. ‘ten-ten’) or with a circle (°, a.k.a. ‘maru’):

+ヤ

+ユ

+ヨ

g

ガ

ga

ギ

gi

グ

gu

ゲ

ge

ゴ

go

ギャ

gya

ギュ

gyu

ギョ

gyo

z

ザ

za

ジ

ji

ズ

zu

ゼ

ze

ゾ

zo

ジャ

ja

ジュ

ju

ジョ

jo

d

ダ

da

チ”

ji

ツ”

zu

デ

de

ド

do

デュ

dyu

b

バ

ba

ビ

bi

ブ

bu

ベ

be

ボ

bo

ビャ

bya

ビュ

byu

ビョ

byo

p

パ

pa

ピ

pi

プ

pu

ペ

pe

ポ

po

ピャ

pya

ピュ

pyu

ピョ

pyo

• We can write ‘ji’ as ジ or チ”, but, in practice, チ” is seldom used
• We can write ‘zu’ as ズ or ツ” but, in practice, ツ” is seldom used
• ‘ji + ya’ (ジャ) is ‘ja’ (as in Jazz), not ‘jya’
• ‘ji + yu’ (ジュ) is ‘ju’ (as in juice), not ‘jyu’
• ‘ji + yo’ (ジョ) is ‘jo’ (as in John), not ‘jyo’
• ‘de + yu’ (デュ) is ‘dyu’, which is not a Japanese sound, so it doesn’t have a hiragana counterpart.

small characters

Up to here, katakana is almost a mirror image of hiragana. However, katakana has been further adapted to include many foreign sounds beyond the ‘tu’ and ‘dyu’ sounds already noted.

Some hiragana and katakana characters can be followed by a ‘tsu’, ‘ya’, yu’ or ‘yo’ to create new sounds. Katakana takes this further to represent sounds that are not present in hiragana, following the characters with small vowels. In this case, the syllable replaces the vowel with the small vowel that follows it. For example, Japanese does not have the sounds ‘fa’, ‘fi’, ‘fe’, or ‘fo’, but it has the sound ‘fu’. Thus, we can follow the ‘fu’ character with a small vowel to replace the ‘u’ with the small vowel:

For example:

The same principle applies when we find any other katakana character followed by a small vowel:

For example:

Seldom-seen characters – ヵ/ヶ, ・ and ＝

An unusual character is the counter ‘ka‘, for months, places, countries and languages, that we write with the katakanas カ or ケ, or their smaller versions, ヵ or ヶ. For example:

Two other unusual characters are the dot ・ and the equals sign ＝. The dot optionally plays the role of a space or a hyphen in a katakanized word, but if the word is the name of a person, then the dot is mandatory and it separates first, middle and last names; likewise, if the person’s name is hyphenated, then the hyphen is mandatory and we represent it with a double hyphen, namely, an equals sign ＝:

the V sound

The ‘u’ (ウ) with a ten-ten (ヴ) sounds ‘vu’. For example, the following image is from the anime ‘Violet Evergarden’:

Since the name ‘Violet Evergarden’ is not Japanese, we write it in katakana:

ヴァイオレット・エヴァーガーデン
va-i-o-re-t-to・e-va-a-ga-a-de-n

The dot between ‘violet’ and ‘evergarden’ separates the first and last names; this parses the name for Japanese speakers who have not seen it before. Now we can write all the ‘v’ sounds:

Words with a ‘v’ often have an alternative spelling with a ‘b’ because to the Japanese ear the ‘v’ sound is indistinguishable from the ‘b’ sound:

practice words

Many of these Japanese words are borrowed from English, but this does not mean that they necessarily sound like their English counterparts, e.g., the word for T-shirt is ‘Tシャツ’, pronounced ‘tii-sha-tsu’, very different from the original ‘tee-shirt’ sound. Some words do sound about the same, though, e.g., ‘piano’, ‘pen’, ‘wain’ (wine), and many others.

ワイン	wain	wine	ミルク	miruku	milk
メロン	meron	melon	カメラ	kamera	camera
スキー	sukii	ski	ケーキ	keeki	cake
セーター	seetaa	sweater	スカート	sukaato	skirt
メニュー	menyuu	menu	ジュース	juusu	juice
テューバ	tyuuba	tuba	デュエット	dyuetto	duet
シャツ	shatsu	shirt	キャビネ	kyabine	cabinet
バス	basu	bus	ビール	biiru	beer
ゲーム	geemu	game	ゴルフ	gorufu	golf
ペン	pen	pen	パン	pan	bread
ピアノ	piano	piano	プール	puuru	pool
カップ	kappu	cup	バッグ	baggu	bag
ベット	betto	bed	ネックレス	nekkuresu	necklace
チェス	chesu	chess	フォーク	fooku	fork
チェック	chekku	check	パーティー	paatii	party
ヴィタミン	vitamin	vitamin	ヴァイキング	vaikingu	viking
ビタミン	bitamin	vitamin	バイキング	baikingu	viking
ヴェスト	vesuto	vest	ヴォールト	vooruto	vault
ベスト	besuto	vest	ボールト	booruto	vault