Throughout my blog sites, I’ve often used Romaji(ローマ字)-Roman Alphabet to write Japanese words. If you are not familiar with Hiragana, Katakana, or Kanji, Romaji will make it easier to for you to read and pronounce Japanese words. Romaji is simply a use of Latin script. Romaji is used in many places in Japan, especially for various public signs including the ones at train & bus stations. In today’s article, let me focus on Romaji and how they are shown in writing.

Here are some of the examples of Romaji’s being used today.

 

Romajji chart from Wikipedia.org 

 

あ	い	う	え	お	（拗音）
あ	a	i	u	e	o
か	ka	ki	ku	ke	ko	kya	kyu	kyo
さ	sa	si	su	se	so	sya	syu	syo
た	ta	ti	tu	te	to	tya	tyu	tyo
な	na	ni	nu	ne	no	nya	nyu	nyo
は	ha	hi	hu	he	ho	hya	hyu	hyo
ま	ma	mi	mu	me	mo	mya	myu	myo
や	ya	(i)	yu	(e)	yo
ら	ra	ri	ru	re	ro	rya	ryu	ryo
わ	wa	(i)	(u)	(e)	(o)
が	ga	gi	gu	ge	go	gya	gyu	gyo
ざ	za	zi	zu	ze	zo	zya	zyu	zyo
だ	da	(zi)	(zu)	de	do	(zya)	(zyu)	(zyo)
ば	ba	bi	bu	be	bo	bya	byu	byo
ぱ	pa	pi	pu	pe	po	pya	pyu	pyo

 

しゃ sha	し shi	しゅ shu	しょ sho
		つ tsu
ちゃ cha	ち chi	ちゅ chu	ちょ cho
		ふ fu
じゃ ja	じ ji	じゅ ju	じょ jo
	ぢ di	づ du
ぢゃ dya		ぢゅ dyu	ぢょ dyo
くゎ kwa
ぐゎ gwa
			を wo

 

When we write our names in English, we often use Romaji.

For example:

やまだ　けいこ　 ==>  Keiko Yamada

やまもと　けいた　 ==>  Keita Yamamoto

はしもと　やすのり　==> Yasunori Hashimoto

There are two basic rules when using Romaji.

1) When using long vowels, circumflex or – is used.

For example:

otôsan, oto-san ==> お父さん、おとうさん　(father)

onêsan, one-san ==> お姉さん、おねえさん　(big sister)

onîsan, oni-san  ==> お兄さん、おにいさん (big brother)

2) Depending on a word, we might double the alphabet.

For example:

kitte  == >　切手、きって (stamp)

koppu  ==> コップ　(cup)

gakkô, gakko-  ==>　学校、がっこう(school)

 

The major things to remember about Romaji is just about these two rules. Other than that, Romaji is pretty simple. Try reading the Romaji below.

• inu
• neko
• tori
• kuma
• pasokon
• tsukue
• nihon

They are:

• inu  ==> 犬、いぬ　(dog)
• neko ==> 猫、　ねこ (cat)
• tori ==>鳥、とり (bird)
• kuma ==>熊、くま (kuma)
• pasokon==>パソコン (personal computer)
• tsukue==>机、つくえ (desk)
• nihon==>日本、にほん (Japan)

Hope this info will be useful for you when traveling to Japan one day.