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

can be replaced with the consonant + +u sound

letter (with chouon or with out following the

consonant)• Mask マスク• Post ポスト• Milk ミルク• Oriental オ リ エ タ ル • Golf ゴルフ• Soft ソフト 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 ノート (O sound)• Simple シンプル (U sound)• Knife ナイフ• Game ゲーム• Grape グレーフ• Single シングル • Image イマー ジ (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 カー• Bar バー• Lever レバー• Lover ラバー• Error エラー• Your ユワー• Sir サーラ

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Use of chouon

• Seesaw シ ーソー

• Queen クイー ン

• Skirt スカー ト

• Error エラー

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Words –ee,-ea,-ai,-oa,-ou,-au,-oo• Words with ee,ea,ai,oa,ou,au,oo, they will be

replaced with chouon.• Speed スピード• Cheese チース• Pearl パー ル• Rail レー ル• Mail メー ル• Coat コート• Group グループ• Coupon クー ポン

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Words –ee,-ea,-ai,-oa,-ou,-au,-oo• Sauce, source ソ ー ス• Auction オー クション• Audition オー デイション• Tournament トー ナメント• Season シー ズン• Boom ブー ム (Consonant at the end

takes U sound)• Pool プー ル • Tour ツ アー (Exception)

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Word with __ all, __al, __ ol, __lk• Words ending with ll, the ll sound will be replaced by ール .

• The vowel - a will take the sound of another vowel - o

• Call コール

• Ball ボール

• All オール

• Old オールド

• Words ending with lk, the lk will be replaced by ーク

• Balk ボ ーク (at the end of a word)

• Chalk チャーク

• Talkie トー キ Page 111

Words ending with w and y

• Words ending with w or Y will be replaced by a

chouon

• Show ショー

• Screw スクリュー

• Ruby ルビー

• Copy コピー

• Energy エネルギー 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 ユー

• Year イヤー

• Ear イヤー

• Your ユー ア

W sounds other than Wa• “W” sounds other than the “wa” ワ included in the basic

alphabet are produced by adding a small “i” ィ , “e” ェ ,

or “o” ォ to “u” ウ , or just using “u” ウ for “wu” (note

that “wo” ヲ is most often only used as a particle and

not in foreign words):

• wa ワ wi ウィ wu ウ we ウェ wo

ウォ • The Japanese game system “Wii” is written ウィー and

“wink” becomes “(w)uinku” ウィンク .

-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 ー• Ace エー ス• Lace レース• Name ネー ム • Game ゲー ム • Base ベース• Face ヴェース• Sale セー ル 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 テート• Skate スケート• Rope ロー プ• Zone ゾー ン • Tube チュー ブ • Tone トー ン Page 113

Words ending with –ation, -otion

• Words ending with –ation or –otion will be replaced shon

• Inflation インフレー ション• Inspiration インスピレー ション• Lotion ロー ション• motion モ ー ション

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Words ending with __ire, __ture

• Chouon is used for words ending with ire and

ture

• Hire ハイヤ ー

• Fire ファイヤ ー

• Culture カルちゃー

• Adventure ア ト ベ ンゃー

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Words ending with __ CK

• Check チエツク • Truck トラツク• Lucky ラツキー• Locker ロツカ ー• Racket ラケツト • Socker サツカ ー

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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

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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)

ha hi fu he ho

• ホース hose • ハイオク high octane gasoline • ハート heart (shape) • ヒーター heater • ハーフ half-Japanese

person • ヘアケア hair care • ハイエナ hyena

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

dressed, Smart

ya yu yo

• ヨーヨー yo-yo• ユニホーム uniform• ユーニーク unique, unusual, individual• タイヤ tire, tyre• ユーモア humor• スノータイヤ snow tire• トヨタ Toyota (auto manufacturer)

ra ri ru re ro• アメリカ America, the U.S.A• ユーロ euro, EUR• クラス class• イタリア Italy• ミイラ mummy (mummified

person)• オムレツ omelet• シール sticker, seal• コーラ cola, Coke • メール e-mail • リスト list

wa wo n• カン can• ウインカー (automobile) turn

signal• ワイン wine• リモコン remote control• カーテン curtain• コンセント electric socket• エアコン air conditioner• ワクチン vaccine

Words in Katakana

• Round ラウンド• Professional プロ• Minus マイナス• Palestine パラスチナ• Theme テー マ• Israel イスラエル• System システム

Words in Katakana

• Computer コンピュー ター• Part time work アルバイト• Start ス タート• Hit ヒツト• Questionnaire アンケート• Fan or Fun フアン• Symposium シンポジウム• Project プロジエケト

Words in Katakana

• Coup d’etat, Coup クー デタ ー

• Mass communication マスコミ• Balance バランス• A miss( Mistake) , Miss, Myth, MIS ミス

Words in Katakana

• Chance チャンス• Salaryman サラリー マン• Accident アクシデント• Release リリース• Robber ロバ

• 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 チューブ

• The soft “th” sound is replaced with characters from the sa shi su se so row of the katakana table. Thank you サンキューBath バス

• Smith スミス ,

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 ウエザー

• Since the only w sound in Japanese is wa,

all other w sounds are generally replaced with

u.

Wine ワイン

Waiter ウエーター

Whisky ウイスキー

• ヴァージニア• バージニア

• The "j" sound, when it doesn't have a

vowel after it, is usually replaced with ji.

Orange オレンジ

• Change チエンジ