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.
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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: タクシイー . This
indicates that the “i” sound at the end should be lengthened when
pronouncing the word.
Normal sized letters and small-sized アイウエオ – some basics
• For long vowels in Katakana, a lengthening marker
( ー ) is used rather than a vowel あいうえお as in
Hiragana.
• For instance, Soup will be written as スープ ,
cake will be written as ケーキ .
• A combination of normal sized letters and small-
sized アイウエオ are used to write foreign words.
Small “tsu” ッ in a word – some Basics
• Like with hiragana, you’ll sometimes see a small “tsu”
ッ in a word, which you shouldn’t confuse with the
large “tsu” ツ . The small “tsu” ッ indicates that the
consonant before it should be lengthened, and the
proper Romanization of a word with a small “tsu” ッ
is to double the consonant.
• In katakana, “kitto” is written キット , not キツト ,
and “issei” is written イッセイ , not イツセイ .
TH CHI and DI
• Words will be replaced by with any of the
• タ チ ツ テ ト series kana alphabets.
• CHI will be replaced by チ or テイ
• Di will be replaced by ジ or ディ
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D , T• D and t, when they do not have a vowel
after them, are usually replaced with do
and to, respectively.
Dress ドレスcontest コンテスト
• Emerald エ メ ラ ル ド
• Salad サラダ (Vowel
before D)
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Words with b,f,g,k,l,m,p,s ending
• For Words ending with b,f,g,k,l,m,p,s consonants
Words ending with __X, __Tch, __ Dge• A word ending with X and Tch will be replaced by
ツクス and and Dge will be replaced by ツジ• Tax タツクス• Wax ワツクス• Complex コンプレツクス• Badge バツジ• Dodgeball ドツジボール• Watch ウォツチ• Sketch ス ケツチ
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 マーク fork フォーク
• The v sound is generally replaced by the b sound.
Video: ビデオ
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 クラスclub クラブPaltform ホーム
•
L and R
• L and r are both replaced with characters from the ra ri ru re ro line of the katakana table. Milk ミルクRoom ルーム
• 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 シンク
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 トラック
Bed ベッド
Pet ペット
pen ペン
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 ホーク (old ho spelling)
fork フォーク (new fo spelling)
vendor ベンダー (old be spelling)
vendor ヴェンダー (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” バレンタイン
and “revenge” is “ribenji” リベンジ .
• Sometimes, “v” sounds are actually pronounced as “v”
sounds with a special set of characters, made by adding
dakuten (two dots) to an “u” ウ , which forms the “vu”
sound, or then adding a small “a” ァ , “i” ィ , “e” ェ , or
“o” ォ : va ヴァ vi ヴィ vu ヴ ve ヴェ vo ヴォ .
For example, “Viking” becomes “vaikingu” ヴァイキング
and “vocal” becomes “vokaru” ヴォカル .
The combined character For example,
• ウィンク (wink),
• ウェスト (west),
• ウォークマン (walkman),
• クィーン (queen),
• シェーク (shake),
• トォイシイ (tsvshi)
• チェンジ (change),
• ティー (tea),
• ファイル (file),
• フィンランド (Finland),
• フェリー (ferry),
• フォーク (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. パパ2. パス3. パズル4. パージ5. パーマ
6. パーラー7. パステル
Some Examples
• マクドナルド (McDonalds),
• コーヒー (coffee),
• コインロッカー (coin locker),
• ビデオ (video),
• テレビ (television),
• ホームページ (home page),
• カレーライス (curry rice).
R before consonants• R's before consonants generally does not get
pronounced, but instead just lengthen the
previous vowel . (e.g., archive -> アーカイ
ブ )
V's at the end of words tend to turn into B's,
while they sometimes stay as V's
( ウ '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
“jon ・ jonzu” ジョン・ジョンズ .
The nakaguro is optional if it’s 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” リンク and
“ball” becomes “booru” ボール .
• “Ti” (“-ty,” “tee”) sounds are either replaced by “chi”
チ or are written by adding a small “i” ィ to “te”
テ : ティ .
“dramatic” becomes ドラマチック and
• “tea” becomes “tii” ティー
“Di”sounds. And Si Sounds• “Di” (“-dy,” “dee”) sounds are either replaced
by “di” ヂ or are written by adding a small
“i” ィ to “de” デ : ディ .
The last name “de Moraes” becomes
“di ・ moraisu” ヂ・モライス . “moody”
becomes “muudi” ムーディ .
• “Si” (“-sy,” “see”) are replaced with “shi” シ .
“fantasy” becomes “fantashii” ファンタシー .
“seesaw” becomes “shiisoo” シーソー
F sounds
• “F” sounds other than the “fu” フ (also pronounced
“hu”) included in the basic alphabet are produced by
adding a small “a” ァ , “i” ィ , “e” ェ , or “o” ォ to
“fu” フ :
fa ファ fi フィ fu フ fe フェ fo フォ• For example, “fetch” becomes “fetchi” フェッチ and
• “fight” becomes “faito” ファイト .
LL
• Roller ローラー
(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 スコール
• Killer キラー
Word with __lf, __ol
• Words ending with lf , lf sound is replaced by
ー フ when preceded by Consonants with
vowel a and Consonants followed by o will be
replaced by
• Half ハーフ
• Calf カーフ
• Golf ゴルフ
OL following a vowel or a consonant
• Words which have ol following a vowel or a
consonant will be replaced by ー ル
• Old オールド
• Gold ゴールド
a i u e o
• エア air • ウエア wear, ware• エイ A, a (the letter) • アイ I, i (the letter) • オウ O, o (the letter)
ka ki ku ke ko
• カキ persimmon • ケイ K, k (the letter) • ココア cocoa • ケーキ cake • ケア care • コア core
sa shi su se so
• キス kiss• サーカス circus• エス S, s (the letter)• ウイスキー whisky• サイ rhinoceros• シーソー seesaw• エース ace
ta chi tsu te to• テスト test• トースター toaster• シート sheet, seat• セーター sweater• スケート ice skate, ice
skating• チーム team• トースト toast• チーター cheetah
na ni nu ne no
• イヌ dog (also written in kanji)• ノート notebook• ネコ cat (also written in kanji)• ナース nurse• ネクタイ necktie• ナイター night game (lit. "nighter") • エヌ N, n (the letter)
ma mi mu me mo• メーク cosmetic make up• モーター motor• マーカー marker• サメ shark• ホーム station platform, home• アニメ animation• ホームステイ home stay• スマート slim, stylish, well