Katakana

Katakana is the set of characters that is used to

form words that have foreign origins. Non-
Japanese names are written in katakana.
Sometimes it is also used as a replacement for
"difficult" kanji or for emphasis.
Animal and fruit names are often written in
katakana for these reasons.
Katakana
Katakana is like hiragana in that every basic
character has the exact same sound as its
name. However, since there are more sounds
in foreign words than in Japanese, katakana
has more characters and combinations than
hiragana does.
One important character that is only used in
katakana is the chouon.
Chouon -- Some Basics
chouon: This katakana character does not have its own pronunciation. It
is used to extend the vowel sound that comes before it.
In hiragana, if you wanted to extend the a sound in a word, you would
write an additional a character. In katakana, this is done using the
chouon instead.
The chouon can be used to extend any vowel sound.
The word takushii (taxi) has the chouonfu in it: . This
indicates that the i sound at the end should be lengthened when
pronouncing the word.

Normal sized letters and small-sized
some basics
For long vowels in Katakana, a lengthening marker
( ) is used rather than a vowel as in
Hiragana.
For instance, Soup will be written as , cake
will be written as .
A combination of normal sized letters and small-
sized are used to write foreign words.
Small tsu in a word some Basics
Like with hiragana, youll sometimes see a small
tsu in a word, which you shouldnt confuse with
the large tsu . The small tsu indicates that the
consonant before it should be lengthened, and the
proper Romanization of a word with a small tsu is
to double the consonant.
In katakana, kitto is written , not , and
issei is written , not .
TH CHI and DI
Words will be replaced by with any of the
series kana alphabets.
CHI will be replaced by or
Di will be replaced by or

Page 103
D , T
D and t, when they do not have a vowel
after them, are usually replaced with do
and to, respectively.
Dress
contest
Emerald
Salad (Vowel before D)
Page 105
Words with b,f,g,k,l,m,p,s ending
For Words ending with b,f,g,k,l,m,p,s consonants
can be replaced with the consonant + +u sound
letter (with chouon or with out following the
consonant)
Mask
Post
Milk
Oriental
Golf
Soft
Page 105
Words with b,f,g,k,l,m,p,s with e ending
The letter e at the end of a word, flowing any of the above
b,f,g,k,l,m,p,s consonants can be replaced with the
consonant + O sound or +u sound letter (with chouon or
with out following the consonant)

Note (O sound)
Simple (U sound)
Knife
Game
Grape
Single
Image (Ge will become ji)
Page 106
Words with ar, -er, -ir, -ur, -or
Words ending with Consonant followed by
ar, er, ur, or, and ir will be replaced by chouon
Car
Bar
Lever
Lover
Error
Your
Sir
Page 107
Use of chouon
Seesaw
Queen
Skirt
Error
Page 107
Words ee,-ea,-ai,-oa,-ou,-au,-oo
Words with ee,ea,ai,oa,ou,au,oo, they will be
replaced with chouon.
Speed
Cheese
Pearl
Rail
Mail
Coat
Group
Coupon
Page 109
Words ee,-ea,-ai,-oa,-ou,-au,-oo
Sauce, source
Auction
Audition
Tournament
Season
Boom (Consonant at the end
takes U sound)
Pool
Tour (Exception)
Page 109
Word with __ all, __al, __ ol, __lk
Words ending with ll, the ll sound will be replaced by .
The vowel - a will take the sound of another vowel - o
Call
Ball
All
Old
Words ending with lk, the lk will be replaced by
Balk (at the end of a word)
Chalk
Talkie Page 111
Words ending with w and y
Words ending with w or Y will be replaced by a
chouon
Show
Screw
Ruby
Copy
Energy
Page 112
Y sound, except when followed by
a, o, or u,
The Y sound, except when followed by
a, o, or u, is usually replaced with i.
You
Year
Ear
Your
W sounds other than Wa
W sounds other than the wa included in the basic
alphabet are produced by adding a small i , e, or
o to u , or just using u for wu (note that
wo is most often only used as a particle and not in
foreign words):
wa wi wu we wo
The Japanese game system Wii is written and
wink becomes (w)uinku .
-a-e,
Words ending with e following a consonant take
the U sound. In this -a-e Combination the word
starting vowel or consonant will take the
E sound followed by
Ace
Lace
Name
Game
Base
Face
Sale Page 113
-o-e, -u-e
However words ending with e following t or d
will take the O sound and
words ending with e following n will take
the n sound .
Date
Skate
Rope
Zone
Tube
Tone
Page 113
Words ending with ation, -otion
Words ending with ation or otion will be
replaced shon
Inflation
Inspiration
Lotion
motion
Page 114
Words ending with __ire, __ture
Chouon is used for words ending with ire and
ture
Hire
Fire
Culture
Adventure

Page 115
Words ending with __ CK
Check
Truck
Lucky
Locker
Racket
Socker

Page 117
Words ending with __X, __Tch, __ Dge
A word ending with X and Tch will be replaced by
and and Dge will be replaced by
Tax
Wax
Complex
Badge
Dodgeball
Watch
Sketch
Page 118
R sound after a vowel
In words that contain an r sound after a vowel,
the katakana word usually just extends the vowel
sound using chouon.
Mark
fork
The v sound is generally replaced by the b sound.
Video:
single consonant sounds
The other single consonant sounds, when they do
not have a vowel after them, are usually replaced
with the appropriate consonant followed by u.
(Some notable exceptions to this are the words
cake and steak, which turn into ke-ki and sute-ki.)
class
club
Paltform

L and R
L and r are both replaced with characters from
the ra ri ru re ro line of the katakana table.
Milk
Room
The "see" sound is generally replaced with shi.
(The newer combination of a se or su character
followed by a half-sized u is used in some
words.)
Sink
A short vowel followed by
a consonant
Words that have a short vowel followed by
a consonant will often double the
consonant. (This is not the case when the
consonant is n.)
Truck
Bed
Pet
pen
Additional character combinations
In order to make foreign words sound more like
their originals, additional character
combinations have been introduced.
These new combinations represent
fa, fi, fe, fo, si, chi, tsu, ji, ju, wi, we, wo, va, vi,
vu, ve, vo, tsa, tsi, tse, tso, che, she, and je.
Old and New words
This means that words that came into the language earlier will
sometimes follow different spelling rules than words that have
been introduced more recently.
Unfortunately, most Japanese people do not actually pronounce
some of the new characters as they are intended to be used
(especially the characters with v and w).
So, the spelling has become more complicated without making the
pronunciation much better. Some words even have more than one
acceptable spelling now.
Ho and Fo / Be and Ve
Fork (old ho spelling)
fork (new fo spelling)

vendor (old be spelling)
vendor (new ve spelling)
still usually pronounced as be
V and B (Contd)
V sounds are more traditionally replaced with b
sounds.
Example, Valentine becomes barentain
and revenge is ribenji .
Sometimes, v sounds are actually pronounced as v
sounds with a special set of characters, made by adding
dakuten (two dots) to an u , which forms the vu
sound, or then adding a small a , i , e, or
o : va vi vu ve vo .
For example, Viking becomes vaikingu
and vocal becomes vokaru .
The combined character
For example,
(wink),
(west),
(walkman),
(queen),
(shake),
(tsvshi)

(change),
(tea),
(file),
(Finland),
(ferry),
(fork).

Words starting with P
Since Katakana words are usually foreign words,
it is easy for students to recognise them.
Any word starting with p has to be a foreign
word and all are written in Katakana.
1. papa 'papa'
2. pasu 'pass'
3. pazuru 'puzzle'
4. paazi 'purge'
5. paama 'perma[nent
wave]'
6. paaraa 'parlor'
7. pasuteru 'pastel'
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

6.
7.
Some Examples
(McDonalds),
(coffee),
(coin locker),
(video),
(television),
(home page),
(curry rice).
R before consonants
R's before consonants generally does not get
pronounced, but instead just lengthen the
previous vowel . (e.g., archive -> )
V's at the end of words tend to turn into B's,
while they sometimes stay as V's
('s with dakuten) when at the start.

Nakaguro
Sometimes you will also see the nakaguro, a dot that
looks like this:. This is an exclusive character in the
katakana alphabet with no pronunciation that marks
separate words (for the native Japanese speaker, who
may not understand where one foreign word ends and
another begins). For example, John Jones becomes
jonjonzu .
The nakaguro is optional if its clear where one word
ends and another begins.
Glass
Please note, also, that NOT all words in katakana come from
English. In recent times, the majority of imported words in
Japanese come from English, however, this was not always the
case. There are many words that have been imported from
Portuguese, Dutch, or German.
There are, for example, two words for "glass" in Japanese.
One is garasu and the other is gurasu. Garasu comes from
Dutch, and means only glass the substance. Gurasu comes
from English and means only 'a cup made of glass.'
L sounds are most often replaced
with r sounds.
For example, link becomes rinku and ball
becomes booru .
Ti (-ty, tee) sounds are either replaced by chi
or are written by adding a small i to te
: .
dramatic becomes and
tea becomes tii
Disounds. And Si Sounds
Di (-dy, dee) sounds are either replaced by
di or are written by adding a small i to
de : .
The last name de Moraes becomes
dimoraisu . moody becomes
muudi .
Si (-sy, see) are replaced with shi .
fantasy becomes fantashii .
seesaw becomes shiisoo
F sounds
F sounds other than the fu (also pronounced
hu) included in the basic alphabet are produced by
adding a small a , i , e, or o to fu :
fa fi fu fe fo
For example, fetch becomes fetchi and
fight becomes faito .
LL
Roller
(Though the ll is in the middle the word ends
with er and gets the chouon and ll also
represented by chouon and also with out
chouon depending on the pronunciation)
Squall
Killer
Word with __lf, __ol
Words ending with lf , lf sound is replaced by
when preceded by Consonants with vowel
a and Consonants followed by o will be replaced
by
Half
Calf
Golf
OL following a vowel or a consonant
Words which have ol following a vowel or a
consonant will be replaced by
Old
Gold
a i u e o
air
wear, ware
A, a (the letter)
I, i (the letter)
O, o (the letter)
ka ki ku ke ko
persimmon
K, k (the letter)
cocoa
cake
care
core
sa shi su se so
kiss
circus
S, s (the letter)
whisky
rhinoceros
seesaw
ace
ta chi tsu te to
test
toaster
sheet, seat
sweater
ice skate, ice
skating
team
toast
cheetah
na ni nu ne no
dog (also written in kanji)
notebook
cat (also written in kanji)
nurse
necktie
night game (lit. "nighter")
N, n (the letter)
ha hi fu he ho
hose
high octane gasoline
heart (shape)
heater
half-Japanese person
hair care
hyena
ma mi mu me mo
cosmetic make up
motor
marker
shark
station platform, home
animation
home stay
slim, stylish, well
dressed, Smart
ya yu yo
yo-yo
uniform
unique, unusual, individual
tire, tyre
humor
snow tire
Toyota (auto manufacturer)
ra ri ru re ro
America, the U.S.A
euro, EUR
class
Italy
mummy (mummified person)
omelet
sticker, seal
cola, Coke
e-mail
list
wa wo n
can
(automobile) turn signal
wine
remote control
curtain
electric socket
air conditioner
vaccine
Words in Katakana
Round
Professional
Minus
Palestine
Theme
Israel
System
Words in Katakana
Computer
Part time work
Start
Hit
Questionnaire
Fan or Fun
Symposium
Project
Words in Katakana
Coup detat, Coup
Mass communication
Balance
A miss( Mistake) , Miss, Myth, MIS


Words in Katakana
Chance
Salaryman
Accident
Release
Robber
Neat neeta
Arubaito
Platform
Error era-
Buffet = baikin

Tsu and Soft Th
The tsu sound is generally replaced with chu.
(The newer combination of the to character
followed by a half-sized u is used in some
words.)
Tube
The soft th sound is replaced with characters
from the sa shi su se so row of the katakana
table.
Thank you
Bath
Smith ,
Hard Th and W
The hard "th" sound is replaced with characters
from the za ji zu ze zo row of the katakana table.
Weather
Since the only w sound in Japanese is wa,
all other w sounds are generally replaced with u.
Wine
Waiter
Whisky
































































The "j" sound, when it doesn't have a
vowel after it, is usually replaced with ji.
Orange
Change