Learning the Japanese Language: Katakana

There are three main alphabets in Japanese: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. In this article you will find information on the usage of katakana, its similarity to hiragana, and common writing mistakes to avoid.

First, katakana is used for the "Japanization" of foreign words. Since Japanese doesn't have the range of sounds in their language found in other languages, it has to use its existing sounds to express foreign words. For example, since most Japanese people who haven't been exposed to English can't pronounce the L-sound, they replace the "L" with an "R." Same thing for "V," which is replaced with a "B" sound. Although it can be confusing at times, it's important to know this difference. If you ever wrote a letter to a Japanese person, you'd have to know how they'd transcribe the word in katakana for them to understand what you're talking about.

Katakana borrows many, many foreign words. An easy example of a word that would be written in katakana is 'paati,' which represents the word 'party' in English. A few other examples are 'konpyutaa', for computer; 'teiburu', for table; and 'futtoboru' for football. In fact, Japanese even borrows English words it can already express in Japanese. A good example of this would be the English word love, which can be expressed in katakana as 'rabu' but is already the word 'ai' in Japanese. However, foreign words can get tricky for English learners if the word isn't borrowed from English. 'Arubaito,' for example, means part-time job in Japanese, and is borrowed from a german word. Even words that aren't from foreign languages can be tricky. 'Terebi' stands for television, 'pokeberu' stands for pager (literally, pocket bell), and 'eakon' stands for air conditioner, for example. With katakana you can write any and all English words, even if the word isn't set in stone in the Japanese language. If the person who is reading your katakana has a working understanding of English, they may be able to figure out what you are trying to say.

Another use for katakana is for foreign names. Since my name is Kris, I'd express that as 'kurisu' in katakana. Likewise someone whose name is Frank would write their name as 'fureinku' in katakana. The reason names are written in katakana and not hiragana is because the names are foreign. Alternatively, Japanese names are written strictly in hiragana. For example, the name Maki Kawaguchi would be written in hiragana, not katakana.

Katakana is very similar to the hiragana alphabet. In fact, they have the exact same number of characters, 46, that represent the exact same sounds. The 'na' katakana is pronounced exactly the same as the 'na' hiragana, the 'ko' katakana is the same as the 'ko' hiragana, and so on. The prime difference between the two has already been covered; katakana is reserved for all foreign words and hiragana is reserved for all strictly Japanese words. Beginners should be very careful not to interchange the two since they are distinctly different from one another. However, because they are so different, it is easy to separate the two and use them correctly most, if not all the time.

The last important note about katakana is that there are some very subtle differences between the characters. In fact, stroke order and stroke count are much more important in katakana than hiragana. However, stroke order and stroke count are important in every single one of the Japanese alphabets; make sure you learn them completely! There are a few important katakana character pairs that vary little in terms of appearance:

'so'/'n' - Although they look exactly the same, there is a difference between the two. The 'so' character has a more vertical slash, and is written from top to bottom. The 'n' character has a more horizontal slash, and is written from bottom to top.

'tsu'/'shi' - The same thing applies to the tsu/shi combo as the so/n combo. The 'tsu' character is more vertical and written from top to bottom and the 'shi' character is more horizontal and is written from bottom to top.

'su'/'nu' - Even though the 'nu' katakana is very rarely used in Japanese whereas the 'su' katakana is one of the most widely used characters, there is a difference to note here. The 'su' character's second stroke does not pass through the first stroke, whereas it does pass through in the 'nu' character.

Once you see the few differences between these different characters, the katakana alphabet is very easy to learn, moreso if you've already learned the hiragana alphabet. Katakana is widely used all over Japan, in shops, in subways, and pretty much anywhere you can think of. Make sure you take the time to master this valuable alphabet early on in your Japanese learning career. Good luck and make sure to tune into my future articles where I'll talk more about Learning the Japanese Language.