Katakana

Katakana has exactly the same sounds as hiragana, written with straighter, more angular signs. It is used mainly for words taken from other languages, most of them from English: コーヒー (kōhī, coffee), テレビ (terebi, television). Foreign names and most country names are written in katakana too.

Your own name will be in katakana, fitted to Japanese sounds: Emma Clark becomes エマ・クラーク (Ema Kurāku). The dot ・ separates the parts of a foreign name. Katakana is also used for many sound words, for emphasis (a bit like italics), and for the names of plants and animals in science.

Loanwords are a big help for learners: once you can read katakana, you can often guess the meaning of menus, signs and shop names by saying them aloud.

The chart has the same order and the same irregular sounds as hiragana: シ (shi), チ (chi), ツ (tsu), フ (fu). ヲ (o) is almost never used, because katakana isn't used for particles.

Some signs look alike. シ (shi) and ツ (tsu): the short strokes of シ sit on the left and the long one sweeps up from the bottom, while ツ has its short strokes on top and the long one sweeps down. ソ (so) and ン (n) work the same way. A few signs are close to their hiragana twins, such as カ (ka), ヘ (he) and リ (ri).

The two dots and the circle work as in hiragana: カ (ka) becomes ガ (ga), ハ (ha) becomes バ (ba) and パ (pa). Small ャ (ya), ュ (yu) and ョ (yo) make the same combinations too: キャ (kya), シュ (shu), チョ (cho), ジャ (ja).

English words often end in a consonant, and Japanese adds a vowel to keep every syllable open: usually u, o after t and d, and i after ch and j. So “bus” is バス (basu), “bed” is ベッド (beddo) and “orange” is オレンジ (orenji).

In katakana, a long vowel is shown with a dash, ー, which doubles the length of the vowel before it. In vertical writing it turns into a vertical line. Romaji marks all five long vowels with a line on top: ā, ī, ū, ē, ō.

Small ッ (tsu) works as in hiragana: hold the next consonant for one beat. Loanwords use it a lot, often where English has a short vowel before the consonant: “bed” is ベッド (beddo), “ticket” is チケット (chiketto).

To write sounds that Japanese doesn't have, katakana combines a sign with a small vowel: テ (te) + small ィ gives ティ (ti), フ (fu) + small ァ gives ファ (fa). These combinations are only used in katakana.

ヴ (vu) was created for the v sound, but most people say it as b, and many common words simply use the b row: “violin” is usually バイオリン (baiorin).