So, you might already know that there are three styles of writing in Japanese. Basic writing is done using what we call, Hiragana (平仮名、ひらがな). We have two other forms of writing called, Katakana (カタカナ、かたかな) & Kanji (漢字、かんじ).

In today’s article, I would like to give you an overview of what is Japanese Katakana is all about. Read on!

Japanese Katakana:

Each syllable in the Japanese language is represented by one character, or kana, in each system.

The following Katakana’s are the ones you need to know.

Source: Wikipedia

 

Gojūon – Katakana characters with nucleus

	a	i	u	e	o
∅	ア	イ	ウ	エ	オ
K	カ	キ	ク	ケ	コ
S	サ	シ	ス	セ	ソ
T	タ	チ	ツ	テ	ト
N	ナ	ニ	ヌ	ネ	ノ
H	ハ	ヒ	フ	ヘ	ホ
M	マ	ミ	ム	メ	モ
Y	ヤ		ユ		ヨ
R	ラ	リ	ル	レ	ロ
W	ワ				ヲ

n	ン

There are 4 main rules about using Katakana in Japanese.

1) Sound of Animals:

When expressing sounds of animals, we use Katakana to express it.

For example:

A dog is barking Wan-Wan.

Wan- Wan is a sound expression in Japanese. (In English, for example,  “woof,  woof” is common to use.)

To write this in Japanese,

Inu ga wan wan hoeteimasu. -犬がワンワン吠えています。（いぬが　ワンワン　ほえています。）

Notice that barking sound “wan wan” is expressed as “ワンワン” in Katakana.

Besides the sound of dog bark, we also use:

Chun Chun (チュンチュン) for bird sound

Nya Nya (ニャー　ニャー) for cats

Bu- Bu- (ブー　ブー) for pigs

Mo- (モー) for cows

This is an interesting video showing you how we express animal sounds in Japanese.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbAcBiGqjKg

 

2) Any Type of Sounds

The sound of rain drop, bells, and trains, they are all expressed in Katakana in Japanese.

For example:

Gata goto (ガタゴト) – sound of train running

bochan (ボチャン) – sound of drops, when you drop something into a water

bari-n (バリーン) – sound of breaking, when you break a glasses or mirror

gahan (ガチャン) – sound of closing doors

 

3) Foreign words

When we use the words that are foreign origin, we use Katakana rather than Hiragana.

for example:

Mafura- (マフラー) – scarf

Pan (パン) – bread

pasocon (パソコン) – Personal computer

sofa-(ソファ) – sofa

orugan (オルガン) – organ

piano (ピアノ) – piano

 

4) Name of foreign country, landmarks. Names of foreign people

Name of countries and names of foreigners are all expressed using Katakana.

for example:

Mikeru Jackson (マイケル　ジャクソン) – Michael Jackson

Indo (インド) – India

piramiddo (ピラミッド)- Pyramid

grand canion (グランド　キャニオン) – Grand Canyon

rasubegasu (ラスベガス) – Las Vegas

 

So there are the major rules you need to know when using Katakana’s. Hope you got to learn more about Katakana today.