What is katakana?

Katakana is the second Japanese syllabary. It has the same sounds as hiragana, character for character, but its shapes are straighter and more angular, so か is カ and さ is サ.

Its main job is words from other languages, such as コーヒー (kōhī, coffee) and テレビ (terebi, television). Foreign names and many sound effects in manga are written in katakana too.

Writers also use it for emphasis, much like italics in English.

If you already know hiragana, you know every katakana sound. What is new is the shapes, the long-vowel mark ー and a few combinations made for foreign sounds.

Basic 46

The table is the same as in hiragana: vowels across, consonants down, ending with ン. Many pairs look related because both scripts grew out of the same kanji: カ and か both come from 加, and セ and せ from 世. Others look nothing alike, such as ア and あ.

Some shapes are easy to mix up. In シ (shi) the dots sit on the left and the last stroke rises from the bottom; in ツ (tsu) the dots sit across the top and the last stroke falls from the top right. ン (n) and ソ (so) differ in the same way. Practise those pairs side by side.

ヲ exists but is rare: in modern writing the particle is written in hiragana, を.

Dakuten and handakuten

The marks work exactly as in hiragana. With the dakuten カ becomes ガ (ga) and ハ becomes バ (ba); with the handakuten ハ becomes パ (pa).

ヂ and ヅ are as rare as their hiragana twins; ジ and ズ are used instead.

Combinations キャ・シュ・チョ

The 33 combinations match hiragana: キャ (kya), シュ (shu), チョ (cho).

Loanwords need sounds that Japanese did not have, so katakana adds combinations with a small vowel: ファ (fa) as in ファン (fan, fan), ティ (ti) as in パーティー (pātī, party) and ウィ (wi) as in ウィンドウ (windō, a window on a screen). You will meet them as you read; they are not part of the basic table.

Long vowels ー and small ッ

In katakana a long vowel is written with a bar, ー, called 長音符ちょうおんぷ (chōonpu): ケーキ (kēki, cake), ノート (nōto, notebook). In vertical text the bar turns vertical too.

A small ッ doubles the next consonant, just like っ in hiragana: ベッド (beddo, bed), ネット (netto, internet).

Together they let katakana follow the rhythm of the original word: スーパー (sūpā, supermarket) comes from the English “super”.