Katakana table

 _________________________________________________________

The dear and lovely katakana... the other Japanese symbols that everyone hates more than anything. Even kanji receive more love than katakana.

But seriously, you cannot not learn the katakana, as they exist to transcribe foreign words.

The problem with them is that they require a lot of writing rules compared to the hiragana.

Are you ready for the rules?

Many students studying Japanese find katakana to be harder than kanji and identifying them can be a challenge for English speakers. They have several writing rules to them, as well as representing foreign words that sometimes can be easy or hard to read. Katakana must be written as how the words sound. For instance, we can write 'apple' in katakana like this, アップル (appuru). Saying it quickly will sound like 'apple.'

As I have mentioned, katakana have more rules when it comes to writing than hiragana. 

One rule, however, is exactly like the one in hiragana and that is the consonant break. In katakana, as you can see with the word アップル, we still see the mini ッ to represent the pause. Otherwise, long vowels are written differently with katakana; we will use ー to write long vowels. This is pretty simple compared to hiragana. Thus, to write 'card', we will write カード (ka-do). Imagine it as a sign stretching the sound.

But the writing rules do not stop there. As we have to write the sound a foreign word makes when we write in katakana, there are some sounds we must take into consideration in order to know how to write a word in katakana. 

It is important to remember that Japanese is a consonant-vowel syllable language, meaning a consonant must be followed by a vowel. As such, when you meet a word in English that you have to write in katakana, you need to 'translate' this word in the Japanese alphabet. Take a word like 'strike' for instance; in Japanese, we must insert a vowel after 's' and 't' (and 'k' as well). The default vowel for such adjustment is 'u'. 

However, if we insert 'u' after 't', the consonant changes. Remember that 't' and 'd' in hiragana are つ (tsu) and づ (dzu) respectively. For 't' and 'd', we will insert an 'o' instead. Thus, 'strike' becomes ストライク (sutoraiku). 'Strike' can be written in two ways, either ストライク (sutoraiku) as in a baseball strike, or ストライキ (sutoraiki), meaning a labour strike.

Vowels

When an English word is borrowed, all English vowels must be categorised in one of the 5 Japanese vowels. Even though there are 6 vowels in English (a, e, i, o, u, y), there are more vowels sounds. Some English vowels are longer than the others. Compare 'live' and 'leave'; they have different qualities, but both sound like 'i' for Japanese speakers. Because Japanese make a distinction between short and long vowels, native speakers are particularly sensitive to length differences.

( i ) in 'heal' is perceived by Japanese as a long ( i )

アイスクリーム (aisu kuriimu) - Ice cream

スキー (sukii) - Ski 

スニーカー (suniikaa) - Sneaker 

チーズ (chiizu) - Cheese

( i ) as in 'hill' is perceived as a short ( i )

テレビ (terebi) - Television 

テニス (tenisu) - Tennis

ミルク (miruku) - Milk

ピアノ (piano) - Piano 

( ei ) as in 'hail' is perceived as a long ( e )

 ケーキ (keeki) - Cake

テーブル (teeburu) - Table

エアメール (eameeru) - Airmail

レインコート (reincooto) - Raincoat

( e ) as in 'bell' is perceived as a short ( e )

 ブレッド (bureddo) - Bread

ペン (pen) - Pen

テスト (tesuto) - Test

デスク (desuku) - Desk

( ae ) as in 'hat' is perceived as a short ( a )

 アップル (appuru) - Apple

カメラ (kamera) - Camera

バッグ (Baggu) - Bag 

プラン (puran) - Plan

( o ) as in 'not' is perceived as a short ( o ), or less frequently as a long ( o )

コーヒー (koohii) - Coffee

ポット (potto) - Pot

ロボット (robotto) - Robot

ゴルフ  (gorufu) - Golf

( o ) as in 'old' is perceived as a long ( o )

ノート (notto) - Note

トースト (toosuto) - Toast

ボート (booto) - Boat

ローン (roon) - Loan

( u ) as in 'good' is perceived as a short ( u )

インプット (inputto) - Input

クッキー (kukkii) - Cookie

ブック (bukku) - Book

ブッシュ (busshu) - Bush

( u ) is in 'moon' is perceived as a long ( u )

 プール  (puuru) - Pool

フード (fuudo) - Food

ルーム (ruumu) - Room

ルール (ruuru) - Rule

( a ) as in 'hut' is perceived as a short ( a )

アメリカ (amerika) - America

カップ (kappu) - Cup

コンピューター (konpyuutaa) - Computer

トラック (torakku) - Truck

( ai ) as in 'ice' is perceived as a combination of ( a ) and ( i )

アイスコーヒー (aisukoohii) - Ice coffee

アイデア (aidea) - Idea

ナイフ (naifu) - Knife

 パイ (pai) - Pie

( ao ) as in 'how' is perceived as a combination of ( a ) and ( u )

 タウン (taun) - Town

ダウ (dau) - Dow (Jones)

ハウス (hausu) - House

マウス (mausu) - Mouse

The sequence of vowel and an ( r ) is perceived as the corresponding long vowel. The sounds in English 'bird' and 'bard' are represented by the same symbols in katakana; both would be written and pronounced バード (ba-do).

ガールフレンド (gaarufurendo) - Girlfriend

アパート (apaato) - Apartment

コース (koosu) - Course

サーカス (saakasu) - Circus

F sounds

( f ) by itself or with a ( ou, u ) is perceived as 'hu' and represented as フ, because this has the most f-like sound of the syllables in the series. ( f ) with other vowels is written as フ plus the following vowel in a small letter.

フランス  (furansu) - France

フットボール (futtobooru) - Football

ファミリー (famirii) - Family

ドルフィン (dorufin) - Dolphin

フィルム (firumu) - Film

フェリー (ferii) - Ferry

カリフォルニア (kariforunia) - California

L and R

( l ) and ( r ) are perceived as ( r ).

ボールペン (boorupen) - Ballpen

コーラ (koora) - Cola coke

ステレオ (sutereo) - Stereo

トランペット (toranpetto) - Trumpet

T and D 

In the authentic Japanese sound system, (t + i) becomes チ (chi), (d + i) becomes ジ (ji) and (t + u) becomes ツ (tsu).

 チケット (chiketto) - Ticket

ミュージック (myuujikku) - Music

ラジオ (rajio) - Radio

ツー (tsuu) - Two

However, an increasing number of Japanese speakers pronounce ( ti ) and ( di ) the same way as English speakers do. This new pronunciation can be represented in katakana like ティ and ディ. Some Japanese write ( tu ) as トゥ, but this is not widely used.

ティー (tii) - Tea

パーティー (paatii) - Party

キャンディー (kyandii) - Candy

タトゥー (tatuu) - Tattoo

TH sound

The initial consonants in 'thank' and 'this' are perceived as ( s ) and ( z ), although in a small number of words the voiceless ( th ) is represented as ( t ).

シアター (shiataa) - Theatre

スリー (surii) - Three

マザー (mazaa) - Mother

サンキュー (sankyuu) - Thank you

アロマテラピー (aromaterapii) - Aromatherapy

エステティック (esutetikku) - Aesthetic

She, je, che sounds

The (she, je, che) sounds do not occur in authentic Japanese words, but can be represented in katakana as シェ、ジェ and チェ respectively.

シェフ (shefu) - Chef

ジェット (jetto) - Jet

チェック (chekku) - Check

チェリー (cherii) - Cherry

ゃ, ゅ, ょ 

Some English words are like those represented in hiragana with a small ゃ, ゅ, ょ and are represented the same in katakana.

キャッシュ (kyasshu) - Cash

シャワー (shawaa) - Shower

チューリップ (chuurippu) - Tulip

チャーチ (chaachi) - Church

V sound

( v ) does not exist in Japanese, but it is pronounced and written as a ( b ). 

アイビー (aibii) - Ivy

ベジタブル (bejitaburu) - Vegetable

バイオリン (baiorin) - Violin

YE sound

Both in hiragana and katakana, ( y ) occurs only with (a, u, o). The syllable ( ye ) can be written イェ.

 イェーツ (ieetsu) - Yates

イェール (ieeru) - Yale

イェルサレム (ierusaremu) - Jerusalem

イェロー (ieroo) - Yellow

W sound

In hiragana, ( w ) can only occur with ( a ), but in katakana, other combinations are possible; ( w ) is represented as ウ and the following vowel in a small letter. 

ウィーク (uiiku) - Week

ウェスト (uesuto) - West

スクウェア (sukuuea) - Square

ウォーター (uootaa) - Water

Consonant break

Like in hiragana, long consonants (or double consonants) are represented with a small ッ in katakana.

 エッグ  (eggu) - Egg

キャッシュ (kyasshu) - Cash

フロッピー (furoppi) - Floppy

ベッド (beddo) - Bed

*Be mindful that most of these words have a word in Japanese, they are not always anglicised!

The reading and writing rules for katakana is what makes them so hard for students to learn. Unfortunately for them, they appear in everyday Japanese texts, so we cannot jump over them and not learn them. More and more Japanese borrow words from English and other languages, thus the use of katakana takes more and more space. 

Now that you have learned the katakana, you can spell your name! If your name is not Japanese, you can write it in katakana. My mother’s name for example; ソニア (Sonia – Sonya). 

Or the name of your pets! My cat’s name for example; ムーン (Mu-n – Moon).

__________________________________________________

Congratulations! You passed the katakana!

おめでとう!!!

Now that you know the katakana, you can almost read everything in Japanese! 

Kanji is just the final step. If you want to dive into kanji right away, I have a good book to recommend all my students to buy if they want to study kanji.

Kanji Look and Learn: 512 kanji with illustrations and mnemonic hints

イメージで覚える「げんき」な漢字512

By Eri Banno, Yoko Ikeda, Chikako Shinagawa, Kaori Tajima and Kyoko Takashiki

I won't make a list of words to learn this time, since you have a bunch up there already.

_______________________________________________________

You have completed lesson 4!

レッシュン4ができました！