Japanese-Online.com

Japanese language uses “Hiragana”, “Katakana”, “Romaji” and “Kanji” in writing.

日本語（にほんご）は、「ひらがな」「カタカナ」「ローマ字（じ）」「漢字（かんじ）」を使（つか）って書（か）きます。

The first three writing are phonetic representation and “Kanji” is Japanese adaptation of traditional Chinese characters.

「ひらがな」「カタカナ」「ローマ字（じ）は発音（はつおん）で、「漢字（かんじ）」は古（ふる）い中国語（ちゅうごくご）を取（と）り入（い）れたものです。

 

Hiragana / ひらがな

Hiragana is the first of the three Japanese alphabets to learn. Hiragana is a phonetic alphabet, where each character represents a syllable. Hiragana is generally the first of the alphabets used, and is used for many purposes. Until one broadens their knowledge of kanji, they can use hiragana in place of the kanji they don’t know. Additionally, hiragana is used as particles, and is also used as accompanying characters to verbs, called okurigana. There are also some words that do not have kanji and are thus written in hiragana alone.

 

n	w-	r-	y-	m-	h-	n-	t-	s-	k-
ん	わ	ら	や	ま	は	な	た	さ	か	あ	a
	ゐ	り		み	ひ	に	ち	し	き	い	i
		る	ゆ	む	ふ	ぬ	つ	す	く	う	u
	ゑ	れ		め	へ	ね	て	せ	け	え	e
	を	ろ	よ	も	ほ	の	と	そ	こ	お	o

 

Extended Consonant Syllables

p-	b-	d-	z-	g-
ぱ	ば	だ	ざ	が	-a
ぴ	び	ぢ	じ	ぎ	-i
ぷ	ぶ	づ	ず	ぐ	-u
ぺ	べ	ぜ	で	げ	-e
ぽ	ぼ	ど	ぞ	ご	-o

 

Modified Syllables: Consonant combined with ‘ya,’ ‘yu,’ or ‘yo’

p-	d-	j-	g-	r-	m-	h-	n-	ch-	sh-	k-
ぴゃ	びゃ	じゃ	ぎゃ	りゃ	みゃ	ひゃ	にゃ	ちゃ	しゃ	きゃ	-ya
ぴゅ	びゅ	じゅ	ぎゅ	りゅ	みゅ	ひゅ	にゅ	ちゅ	しゅ	きゅ	-yu
ぴょ	びょ	じょ	ぎょ	りょ	みょ	ひょ	にょ	ちょ	しょ	きょ	-yo

 

Long Vowels

oo	ee	uu	ii	aa
おお	ええ	うう	いい	ああ

 

Note: Double Consonants: kk, pp, tt, etc. are expressed in hiragana as a small “tsu” (っ) before the kana. For example, chotto meaning “a little” is written as ちょっと.

 

Katakana / カタカナ

Katakana is the second phonetic Japanese alphabet. Katakana, unlike hiragana is written with straight lines. Generally, katakana is used for writing words of foreign origin.

 

n	w-	r-	y-	m-	h-	n-	t-	s-	k-
ン	ワ	ラ	ヤ	マ	ハ	ナ	タ	サ	カ	ア	a
		リ		ミ	ヒ	ニ	チ	シ	キ	イ	i
		ル	ユ	ム	フ	ヌ	ツ	ス	ク	ウ	u
		レ		メ	ヘ	ネ	テ	セ	ケ	エ	e
	ヲ	ロ	ヨ	モ	ホ	ノ	ト	ソ	コ	オ	o

 

Extended Consonant Syllables

p-	b-	d-	z-	g-
パ	バ	ダ	ザ	ガ	-a
ピ	ビ	ヂ	ジ	ギ	-i
プ	ブ	ヅ	ズ	グ	-u
ペ	ベ	デ	ゼ	ゲ	-e
ポ	ボ	ド	ゾ	ゴ	-o

 

Modified Syllables: Consonant combined with ‘ya,’ ‘yu,’ or ‘yo’

p-	d-	j-	g-	r-	m-	h-	n-	ch-	sh-	k-
ピャ	ビャ	ジャ	ギャ	リャ	ミャ	ヒャ	ニャ	チャ	シャ	キャ	-ya
ピュ	ビュ	ジュ	ギュ	リュ	ミュ	ヒュ	ニュ	チュ	シュ	キュ	-yu
ピョ	ビョ	ジョ	ギョ	リョ	ミョ	ヒョ	ニョ	チョ	ショ	キョ	-yo

 

Long Vowels

oo	ee	uu	ii	aa
オー	エー	ウー	イー	アー

 

Note: Double Consonants: kk, pp, tt, etc. are expressed in katakana as a small “tsu” (ッ) before the kana For example, shotto, meaning “shot” is written as ショット.

 

There are small versions of “ア,” “イ,” “ウ,” “エ,” and “オ” that are “ァ,” “ィ,” “ゥ,” “ェ,” and “ォ.” These are used in conjunction with some other characters to create characters for sounds that were not originally covered by the original set of hiragana/katakana.

 

• “ti” and “tu” sounds now commonly written as “ティ,” and “トゥ.”
• “di” and “du” sounds, are now commonly written as “ディ,” and “ドゥ.”
• Combining the small “ァ,” “ィ,” “ゥ,” “ェ,” and “ォ” with “フ,” gives character combinations “ファ,” “フィ,” “フェ,” and “フォ” for “fa,” “fi,” “fe,” and “fo” respectively.
• “wi,” “we,” and “wo” are written as “ウィ,” “ウェ,” and “ウォ.”
• As the “v-“sound did not originally exist, the “ヴ” character was created to provide that sound. Now, “va,” “vi,” “vu,” “ve,” and “vo” can be written as “ヴァ,” “ヴィ,” “ヴ,” “ヴェ,” and “ヴォ” respectively.
• For “je,” “she,” and “che,” “ジェ,” “シェ,” and “チェ”are used for them respectively.

   

 

Romaji

Romaji is the writing of Japanese phonetic characters as Roman letters. Sometimes it helps with pronunciation of words when learning Japanese.

 

n	w-	r-	y-	m-	h-	n-	t-	s-	k-
n	wa	ra	ya	ma	ha	na	ta	sa	ka	a	a
		ri		mi	hi	ni	chi	shi	ki	i	i
		ru	yu	mu	fu	nu	tsu	su	ku	u	u
		re		me	he	ne	te	se	ke	e	e
	wo	ro	yo	mo	ho	no	to	so	ko	o	o

 

Extended Consonant Syllables

p-	b-	d-	z-	g-
pa	ba	da	za	ga	-a
pi	bi	di	ji	gi	-i
pu	bu	du	zu	gu	-u
pe	be	de	ze	ge	-e
po	bo	do	zo	go	-o

 

Modified Syllables: Consonant combined with ‘ya,’ ‘yu,’ or ‘yo’

p-	d-	j-	g-	r-	m-	h-	n-	ch-	sh-	k-
pya	bya	jya	gya	rya	mya	hya	nya	cya	sya	kya	-ya
pyu	byu	jyu	gyu	ryu	myu	hyu	nyu	cyu	syu	kyu	-yu
pyo	byo	jyo	gyo	ryo	myu	hyo	nyu	cyo	syo	kyo	-yo

 

Long Vowels

oo	ee	uu	ii	aa
o-	e-	u-	i-	a-

 

Kanji / 漢字（かんじ）

Kanji are the characters that were imported from China. Each kanji character generally has two readings – an onnyomi or音読み (おんよみ), which is the original Chinese reading of the character, and the kunnyomi or 訓読み (くんよみ), which is the Japanese adaptation of the character. Something to note is that characters can have more than one 音読み or 訓読み or both.

 

Punctuation

English	.	,	“	“
Japanese	。	、	「	」

The symbols for punctuation look slightly different in Japanese compared to English.