It is the extension of length of the pronunciation of a vowel in a word. So, let’s continue… shall we? ?Ĭhouon (長音): Long Vowel. In addition, Katakana can even be easier than Hiragana, mainly to write it. But, those combinations are not used as often as those you already learned in Hiragana. Thus, バイオレット (baioretto) is more commonly used than ヴァイオレット (vaioretto). Then, バ (ba) is most used than ヴァ (va), for example. That’s why even Japanese people have difficulties to pronounce words with that sound. It happens because some words came into the language earlier, following different spelling rules than those that have been introduced recently.Ĭonsequently, there are more than one spelling considering to be correct and this makes it more confusing, even to Japanese people who don’t pronounce those characters as they were intended to be.Īnd actually, there is no “V” sound in original Japanese, this is usually replaced by “B”. However, some words have more than one acceptable spelling, like “Violet”: Other examples of Katakana combinations are: Onomatopoeias (擬音語): The Japanese language uses lots of onomatopoeias, such as: Technical and scientific terms are also written in Katakana, like animal and fruit names, such as: Thus, it is used to write non-Japanese names, including: country names, foreign places and foreign personal names. This Kanji 外 can be translated as: outside foreign. Today you see the few differences between them and the uses of Katakana.įoreign Words: You just saw above one of the most common uses of Katakana: used to form words that have foreign origins, loanwords called Garaigo ( 外来語).
#Japanese kanaa usage how to#
In the next lessons, the focus will be on learning how to write Katakana than in its pronunciation because it’s mostly like you already know from Hiragana. Katakana is also used to write Furigana: a kana written above a Kanji in order to help it to be read, most common to see it in Hiragana though. Because there are no Kanji associated with words based on imported languages. So, Katakana brings some new sounds than those you learned in Hiragana. It combines phonemes, mainly to represent sounds originated from foreign words. The kanji 片 (kata) can be translated as “fragmentary one “of a pair”. It is a syllabary, phonetic script written in an angular shape. Katakana ( 片仮名 | カタカナ) is one of the three Japanese Writing System. This subject was briefly introduced to you in this post.Īnd today we’ll explain it with more details. Now you’ve learned Hiragana, you’re ready to know Katakana!