Writing system in Japanese

3 writing systems

There are 3 types of writing systems in Japanese. They are called "Hiragana", "Katakana", and "Kanji". Around the 5th century, Japanese people started to use Chinese characters "Kanji" to represent Japanese language. Then, around the 9th century, they simplified shapes of certain Kanji and created "Hiragana" and "Katakana" which are phonetic letters (indicating just the sounds).
Today, Japanese writing consists of these 3 kind of characters.

   私    は ビールを 飲みました。

I drank a beer.

漢 Kanji

- Each kanji represents a meaning and has several different pronunciations.
- They are used for nouns, adjectives, verbs etc.
- The number of commonly used kanji in Japan is about 2000 ! Japanese children learn about 1000 kanji in primary school and another 1000 kanji in junior high school.

あ ア Hiragana / Katakana

- Hiragana and katakana writings are phonetic letters (indicating just the sounds). Therefore, learning hiragana and katakana means learning Japanese pronunciation as well.
- There are 46 letters of hiragana and 46 letters of katakana, both representing the same 46 sounds. That means, each sound can be written in 2 ways (hiragana and katakana).
- Katakana is mainly used for words with foreign origins.

Ａ Rōmaji

There is an official way to transcribe Japanese sounds into the Roman alphabet (English alphabet) which is called Rōmaji. You can read all Japanese sentences on this site without having to learn the Japanese writing system, because all the Japanese sentences are transcribed in Rōmaji !

In Noriko's Japanese Lessons, you learn hiragana, katakana, and rōmaji.

You can learn hiragana and katakana at the same time. If it's too much, you can start with hiragana first, which is used more frequently.

Punctuations

Punctuation

　、 equivalent to comma , : It's called "ten" and is used for the pause in a sentence.

あした、べんきょうします。

Tomorrow, I study.

　。 equivalent to period . : It's called "maru" and is used to mark the end of a sentence.

すしを たべました。

I ate sushi.

　「」 equivalent to quotation marks " " : It's called "kagi kakko" and is used to quote.

「いいですよ」と いいました。

I said "Alright".

　（ ） equivalent to parentheses ( ) : It's called "kakko" and is used to add information.

とうきょう (にほんのしゅと)

Tokyo (Capital of Japan)

？ ！ aren't used in formal Japanese writing. However, they could be used in casual writing.

　 Space

In Japanese sentences, there is no space between words. But on this site, the space is sometimes inserted between words in order to see the sentence structure more clearly.

Hiragana & Katakana Chart

There are 5 vowels in Japanese. Basic 46 Hiragana / Katakana chart shows the 5 vowels and 41 combination of consonants and vowel sounds. Click on letters to listen to the sounds.

How do I to write hiragana and katakana?

Click on the link below to download the worksheets. These sheets will help you learn the proper stroking and the formation of each character. Let's practice !

The font used on this website.
Please use this font as a model.

Some fonts show certain hiragana
letters this way.

Marks and ゜

These marks should be added on the upper right corner of each letter.

" ji " and " zu "

You have 2 choices of letters describing the sounds "ji" and "zu". For the sound, "ji", the letter じ is most often used and ぢ is used in some exceptional cases. For the sound "zu", the letter ず is most often used and づ is used in some exceptional cases.

Contracted sounds

When one of the 3 letters, や(ya), ゆ(yu), よ(yo) is written small after "i" vowel letters (see below)...

They become contracted sounds.
They are pronounced as if you are pronouncing these two letters at the same time:

Double vowels / Double consonants

Double vowels

In Japanese, there are double vowels (long vowels) and single vowels (short vowels). Double vowels are transcribed as follows:

In Rōmaji

Put a straight line mark ( ‾ ) on top of double vowels.

テーブル

pronounced as "teeburu"

ルール

pronounced as "ruuru"

In Hiragana

Add a double sound vowel letter.

おかあさん

おにいさん

くうき

おねえさん

おとうさん

In Katakana

Put a straight line to transcribe the second vowel.

コーヒー

タクシー

いえ

いいえ

おばさん

おばあさん

Double consonants

To transcribe the double consonant sound ( kk, tt, ss, pp, etc), write a small つ right before the letter of which the consonant should be doubled.This つ is not pronounced, but indicates that the following consonant is doubled. This rule applies to both hiragana and katakana.

ざっし

がっこう

コップ

カッター

Exception

Exceptional use of hiragana for certain particles

Case 1

To transcribe the particle of subject/topic "wa", the letter は is used. In this case, は is exceptionally pronounced as "wa".

わたし は

せんせい

です

I am a teacher.

Case 2

To transcribe the particle of destination "e", the letter へ is used. In this case, へ is exceptionally pronounced as "e".

わたし は

にほんへ

いきます

I go to Japan.

Case 3

The letter を is used exclusively as the particle of the direct object. You can't use お in this case even though the pronunciation is the same.

わたし は

パンを

たべます

I eat bread.

Other exceptional pronunciations

To transcribe foreign sounds which do not exist in Japanese, we write these vowel combinations in small letters in katakana. In rōmaji, these foreign sounds are written as follows in parentheses.

チェックイン

ディナー

ファックス

フェイスブック

フィットネス

フォント

ジェニファー

キティ

ミルクシェイク

ウォルマート

ウェブサイト

ウィンドウズ