Hiragana/Katakana

Hiragana/Katakana

Japanese uses three different writing systems/scripts, hiragana, katakana, and kanji.

Hiragana(平假名) is the most basic Japanese syllabary. It's like an alphabet that uses syllables instead of individual sounds.

In English, each letter usually represents one sound, like k or s. But hiragana characters each represent a syllable.

Japanese syllables are usually just a consonant followed by a vowel(father, see food pet open), like ku or sa.

There are a few exceptions. The vowels can appear by themselves, like with い (i). There’s also a singular consonant, ん (n). Also, keep in mind that ch and sh count as one consonant sound, even though they’re spelled with two letters!

Katakana(片假名) is the syllabary used to write foreign words and some noises. Although it's different from hiragana, it represents the exact same syllables.

Kanji(漢字) are Chinese characters used in the Japanese language to write individual nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Kanji are not phonetic, meaning you need to memorize each pronunciation individually.

Below are the most basic table of Japanese hiragana and katakana.

father see food pet open

＞r-l zh ch sh-j q x

Tips:

Japanese	IPA, Notes
1うウ	[ɯ], like the oo in food noon cool, with unrounded lips, more relaxed
3し シ shiじ ji	[ɕi], like the shee in sheep
3す ス	[sɯ], although it can shorten to more of a [s] at the end of a word
4 ち チ chi ji	[tɕi], like the tch in itchy
4 つ ツ tsu zu	[tsɯ], like the ts in cats/rats
6 は	[ha], pronounced like wa as a particle
6 ひ ヒ	[çi], like the h in human
6 ふ フ fuぶ bu	[ɸɯ], roughly between a short "hoo" and "foo", "f"
6 へ	[he], pronounced like [e] or "eh" as a particle
を ヲ	[o], although it's most often romanized as "wo"
ん ン	[n] or [ŋ], like the n in pink, producing a [m] when combined with a bilabial(hmp, 双唇音) stop, hence "tempura" and not "tenpura". As the only solitary consonant in hiragana, ん is especially notable because it is only found at the end of another syllable. In other words, you will never read a Japanese word that begins with ん。
ー	long vowel mark, used to extend the vowel sound that precedes it
ジ ヂ	dʑi], like the jee in jeep

Dakuten & Small tsu

Mnemonics

Rakuten: 乐天株式会社

Putting two little dots/lines (called Dakuten) at the upper(top) right corner changes the pronunciation of Hiragana in the following way:

Sound	Sound with ゛	Example
k	g	か (ka) → が (ga)
s	z	さ (sa) → ざ (za), し (shi) → じ (ji)*
t	d	た (ta) → だ (da), ち(chi) → ぢ(ji)*, つ (tsu) → づ (zu)*
h	b	は (ha) → ば (ba), ふ(fu) → ぶ(bu)*

Putting this small circle゜ (called Handakuten) at the upper right corner changes the pronunciation of Hiragana h group in the following way:

Sound	Sound with ゜	Example
h	p	は (ha) → ぱ (pa)

Putting っ (small tsu) between two Hiraganas doubles the letter right after っ and introduces a short pause between two sounds. When you see this，it means you have to hold the next consonant longer than normal, Examples:

Without っ	With っ
きて (kite)	きって (kitte)
もと (moto)	もっと (motto)
あさり (asari, 蛤)	あっさり (assari)

Lastly, this skill introduces the big and small versions of three sounds in hiragana. A small や、ゆ、or よ changes the pronunciation of a word in the following way:

And notice that cha is a bit of an exception, since it doesn’t include the y!

Big や-ゆ-よ	Small や-ゆ-よ
きや [ki-ya]	きゃ [kya]
きゆ [ki-yu]	きゅ [kyu]
きよ [ki-yo]	きょ [kyo]

The small character changes the two-syllable construction into a one-syllable construction. Sometimes, the difference can lead to a real change in meaning, as shown below:

Big よ	Small よ
びよういん [bi-yō-in] "beauty salon, 美容院"	びょういん [byō-in] "hospital, 病院"

Katakana characters

If you sound out the words below using katakana characters, you might find some familiar words! Some of the pronunciation is a little different than its English equivalent, though.

Japanese	Romaji	English
カメラ	kamera	camera
アフリカ	Afurika	Africa
フランス	Furansu	France
メキシコ	Mekishiko	Mexico
アメリカ	Amerika	the US / America / アメリカ人です(American)
マリア	Maria	Maria (female given name)
エリカ	Erika	Erika (female given name)
マリオ	Mario	Mario (male given name)
マドリード	Madoriido	Madrid

Just be careful - not all words written in katakana were taken from English!

Japanese	Romaji	English
イギリス	Igirisu	the UK / the United Kingdom / inglês(Portuguese)
イタリア	Itaria	Italy / Italia(Italian)
ローマ	Rōma	Rome / Roma(Italian)

Not all foreign loan words in Japanese are directly equivalent to their English counterparts! For instance, in Japanese アメリカ (Amerika) isn't commonly used to refer to all of North America or to both North and South America - it's used almost exclusively to mean "the United States."

However, イギリス (Igirisu) can be used to refer to both "the UK" and "England."