Katakana⁓カタカナ⁓
After learning hiragana, let's learn katakana (カタカナ). This is mainly used to show the pronunciation of foreign words. The same as hiragana, there are basic katakanas, and some irregular katakanas.
⁓ ⁓ Katakana list ⁓ ⁓
| Vowel | |
|---|---|
| Consonant | Character [character with ゛] (character with ゜) |
| Pronunciation [pronunciation with] (pronunciation with ゜) |
*There are some characters that can be shown in two ways with roman characters, so another way will be shown with {} in this table. The one without {} is more near to actual pronunciation.
*In "r" line, the actual pronunciation is near to "l" sound, but the notation is "r".
*Since ン is a special character which does not have a vowel, I separated it from the list.
| Consonant\Vowel | a | i | u | e | o |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (No consonant) | ア | イ | ウ | エ | オ |
| a | i | u | e | o | |
| k | カ[ガ] | キ[ギ] | ク[グ] | ケ [ゲ] | コ [ゴ] |
| ka [ga] | ki [gi] | ku [gu] | ke [ge] | ko [go] | |
| s | サ [ザ] | シ[ジ] | ス[ズ] | セ[ゼ] | ソ[ゾ] |
| sa [za] | shi{si} [zi] | su [zu] | se [ze] | so [zo] | |
| t | タ[ダ] | チ[ジ] | ツ[ヅ] | テ[デ] | ト[ド] |
| ta [da] | chi{ti} [ji] | tu tsu [du] | te [de] | to [do] | |
| n | ナ | ニ | ヌ | ネ | ノ |
| na | ni | nu | ne | no | |
| h | ハ[バ] (パ) | ヒ[ビ] (ピ) | フ[ブ] (プ) | ヘ[ベ] (ペ) | ホ[ボ] (ポ) |
| ha [ba] (pa) | hi [bi] (pi) | hu [bu] (pu) | he [be] (pe) | ho [bo] (po) | |
| m | マ | ミ | ム | メ | モ |
| ma | mi | mu | me | mo | |
| y | ヤ | |
ユ | |
ヨ |
| ya | yu | yo | |||
| r | ラ | リ | ル | レ | ロ |
| ra | ri | ru | re | ro | |
| w | ワ | |
ヲ | ||
| wa | wo | ||||
| ン |
|---|
| nn{n} |
Find some more ways to pronunce katakanas below. We use small ヤ, ユ
and ヨ
after some characters. For example, the word for Japan's capital and biggest city, Tokyo, has this sound. "トウキョウ"
| Base /Small characters | ヤ | ユ | ヨ |
|---|---|---|---|
| キ[ギ] | キャ[ギャ] | キュ[ギュ] | キョ[ギョ] |
| kya | kyu | kyo | |
| シ[ジ] | シャ[ジャ] | シュ[ジュ] | ショ[ジョ] |
| sha | shu | sho | |
| チ[ヂ] | チャ[ヂャ] | チュ[ヂュ] | チョ[ヂョ] |
| cha | chu | cho | |
| ニ | ニャ | ニュ | ニョ |
| nya | nyu | nyo | |
| ヒ[ビ](ピ) | ヒャ[ビャ](ピャ) | ヒュ[ビュ](ピュ) | ヒョ[ビョ](ピョ) |
| hya | hyu | hyo | |
| ミ | ミャ | ミュ | ミョ |
| mya | myu | myo | |
| リ | リャ | リュ | リョ |
| rya | ryu | ryo |
This is a YouTube video that shows you how to write and pronounce basic katakana.
(by Japanese Calligrapher Takumi)
This video shows how to write and pronounce basic katakana and it is good to see the stroke order.