Katakana: Your Passport to International Phrases in Japanese

Which katakana characters look the identical?

A number of katakana characters look concerningly related. Whereas these katakana characters will be tough to tell apart, a cautious eye can discern which is which. 

The path and order you write every line—often known as Japanese stroke order—is particularly essential in katakana. The excellence between so (ソ) and n (ン) in addition to shi (シ) and tsu (ツ) relies nearly solely on whether or not the curved line is written from high to backside or backside to high. As you study the katakana alphabet, ensure you add katakana stroke order to your observe periods.

Further katakana characters

To increase the vary of sounds, Japanese provides diacritical marks to hiragana and katakana characters. Nevertheless, past the marks utilized in each alphabets, katakana has a number of particular circumstances all by itself. 

For instance, the lengthening mark, chōonpu (長音符), elongates a vowel sound. It seems like a touch (ー), and is predominantly utilized in katakana, whereas hiragana typically combines vowel sounds to create the identical impact. As a result of katakana is supposed to emulate international sounds, it has distinctive options that set it aside.

What are the voiced sounds in katakana?

The unobtrusive dakuten (濁点) point out voiced sounds in katakana and appear like small citation marks (゛) within the higher proper nook of the character. With a number of exceptions, this turns “ok” sounds into “g” sounds, “s” sounds into “z” sounds, “t” sounds into “d” sounds, and “h” sounds into “b” sounds. The “h” sounds additionally get an extra half-voiced mark (handakuten, 半濁点) that appears like a small circle (゜) within the higher proper nook of the character that turns the “h” sounds into “p” sounds.

What are the contracted sounds in katakana?

The Japanese language creates contracted sounds by way of the mix of characters that finish in an “i” sound and the three “y” sounds: ya (ヤ), yu (ユ), and yo (ヨ). It’s essential to concentrate to the dimensions, as a mix of characters with the full-size “y” sound shall be two separate syllables, whereas the contracted sounds use a small “y” character to make one syllable.

• キヤ = ki-ya
• キャ = kya

What are prolonged katakana?

Katakana is supposed to spell out international phrases, however not all sounds in international phrases have direct equivalents in Japanese. The result’s katakana combos that add small variations of the vowels to the decrease proper of characters to create distinctive contracted syllables. Generally, the phrases shall be written with these extra vowels as full-size characters, however the meant sound is similar. These combos are uncommon inside Japanese, so the foundations surrounding their use are a little bit looser.

Do not forget that these are sounds that lie outdoors the traditional Japanese phonemes however they continue to be Japanese. Regardless that they resemble sounds within the different languages they’re meant to emulate, they won’t sound precisely the identical.

Regardless of the rarity of those combos, you’ll nonetheless acknowledge a few of the phrases they’ll create! Within the strategy of going from English to katakana, lots of the syllables keep acquainted.

• webu (ウェブ）= web
• kafe（カフェ）= cafe
• chekku（チェック）= check
• disuku（ディスク）= disk/disc

The right way to use katakana

Katakana is primarily used for international phrases, which incorporates Japanese loanwords and names. Your title will seemingly be among the many first stuff you use katakana to put in writing. Japanese pronunciation differs from English pronunciation, that means many names will sound barely completely different, however others could sound almost similar.

When touring in Japan, you’re nearly assured to seek out katakana in a number of locations throughout your keep. Many journey=associated Japanese phrases are loanwords written in katakana, like “resort” (hoteru, ホテル), “bus” (basu, バス), and “comfort retailer” (konbini, コンビニ). The title of your nation can also be more likely to be written in katakana.

The loanwords for some nations don’t come from English. In England’s case, the katakana title comes from the Portuguese phrase inglês for “English.” The Portuguese have been the primary vacationers from Europe to make contact with Japan, so it’s no shock that a few of their phrases would stay part of the Japanese language right now.

How do you kind in katakana?

Step one to typing in Japanese—together with katakana—is to replace your machine’s language settings. Relying in your laptop or telephone, that course of shall be completely different, however the way in which you kind in katakana is common. You gained’t even must get used to a so-called katakana keyboard format, as a QWERTY keyboard is all you want.

Typing in katakana on a pc keyboard requires a number of extra keystrokes than typing in hiragana, however the precept is similar. When you’ve turned on the Japanese language setting to your keyboard, kind out the romanized sounds you realized alongside katakana. For those who kind “a,” it is going to mechanically consequence within the hiragana character あ. To show that into katakana, you could have three choices:

• Faucet the area spar earlier than hitting enter to verify the character. This opens up a menu so that you can choose the character you need that matches that sound, together with katakana. Kanji choices can even seem, so watch out.
• Earlier than you hit enter, use the important thing command Ctrl+i. As a substitute of turning the character into italics, it is going to change the hiragana to katakana.
• Manually change the Japanese keyboard setting from “Hiragana” to “Full-Width Katakana” to kind completely in katakana. Since you’re unlikely to be writing solely in katakana, it’s simpler and extra environment friendly to make use of one of many first two choices.

For cell gadgets, the method is even simpler due to the autocorrect perform on most smartphones. Sort out the phrase utilizing romanization the identical approach you do on a pc keyboard, and have a look at the autocorrect choices you’re given. There’s likelihood the phrase you’re searching for is already recommended!

3 straightforward methods to memorize katakana

Every day katakana observe is essentially the most dependable strategy to memorize katakana rapidly and effectively. You don’t must spend an hour of concentrated examine on it—simply 5-10 minutes per day over breakfast or earlier than you go to mattress is sufficient! For those who study hiragana first, you may moderately anticipate katakana to take you much less time to study since you’ll already be acquainted with the order of the characters and what they sound like. 

For those who’re searching for a number of methods to expedite your studying, you can begin with Katakana flashcards, that are a dependable and time-tested train for easy memorization. For those who study effectively by writing issues down, strive making your personal! In any other case, pre-made katakana decks are straightforward to seek out.

Additionally, search for mnemonic gadgets within the form and sound of the characters. You may give you concepts your self, or you may depend on assets just like the Katakana Reminiscence Trace app from The Japan Basis which have executed the be just right for you.

Then, discover real-life examples of katakana and observe studying them. This may be so simple as going to a Wikipedia web page to your favourite film and switching the web page language to Japanese. The variety of katakana characters you’ll see by way of immersion studying could shock you!

Learn in katakana on the Rosetta Stone app

No matter the way you select to study katakana, consistency is what issues most. Be taught 5 characters a day and also you’ll be executed in per week! As you retain studying Japanese, katakana will proceed to look, so that you’ll get loads of observe naturally.

You may resolve to study the Japanese alphabets first or get began on grammar and dialog from the start. Both approach, the Rosetta Stone app will ease you into Japanese the identical approach you realized your native language. Comfortably flip the textual content settings between Japanese writing programs and the romanization to fit your examine fashion!