Same sounds, new shapes
Katakana has exactly the sounds hiragana has. If you know あ is a, you already know what ア says. Only the shapes are new.
Katakanaカタカナ
Katakana, the same sounds in sharper shapes
Katakana writes loanwords, foreign names, onomatopoeia and anything that wants emphasis. Same 46 sounds as hiragana, straighter lines. Tap one to watch it, then draw it.
Tap any character to watch its stroke order, then draw it yourself.
The 46 basic sounds
aiueo
k
s
t
n
h
m
y
r
w
n
Voiced sounds
Two marks (゛) or a small circle (゜) on a basic character.
g
z
d
b
p
Small kana
Written small, they change the sound of the character before them.
Combinations
An i-column character plus a small ゃ, ゅ or ょ: one syllable.
キャkyaキュkyuキョkyoシャshaシュshuショshoチャchaチュchuチョchoニャnyaニュnyuニョnyoヒャhyaヒュhyuヒョhyoミャmyaミュmyuミョmyoリャryaリュryuリョryoギャgyaギュgyuギョgyoジャjaジュjuジョjoビャbyaビュbyuビョbyoピャpyaピュpyuピョpyo
Things worth knowing
The long vowel bar ー
Katakana stretches a vowel with a bar: コーヒー (kōhī, coffee), ケーキ (kēki, cake). Hiragana writes an extra vowel instead.
Look-alikes
シ and ツ, ソ and ン, ク and ワ. The stroke order tells them apart: in シ the long stroke rises from the bottom left, in ツ it falls from the top right. Watch both, then draw them.
Extra combinations
Foreign sounds get their own: ファ (fa), ティ (ti), ヴ (vu), ウィ (wi), ジェ (je), ディ (di). Not on the classic chart, everywhere in loanwords.
Where you will see it
Loanwords (テレビ, コンピューター), foreign names and places, many onomatopoeia (ドキドキ), plant and animal names in science, and emphasis, a bit like italics.
Your name
Names are written by sound, not spelling: María becomes マリア, John becomes ジョン. Naraio suggests one when you create an account, and you can change it.
Questions people ask
For words borrowed from other languages, foreign names and places, many onomatopoeia, the scientific names of plants and animals, and for emphasis, the way English uses italics or capitals.
They stop looking the same once you have drawn them. In シ the two short strokes are stacked and the long stroke rises from the bottom left; in ツ the short strokes sit side by side and the long one falls from the top right. Ten strokes of each on the board and you will not mix them again.
Each character is easier to write: fewer curves. It takes longer to become automatic because you see it less often. Reading menus, product names and shop signs is the best practice.
By how it sounds. Break it into Japanese syllables, use the long vowel bar for stretched vowels, and a small ッ for a sharp double consonant: Sofía → ソフィア, Matt → マット. There is often more than one right answer.
Hiragana
The first syllabary: particles, verb endings and the furigana over kanji.
Ready to start?
A free account keeps your progress: hiragana today, your first kanji this week.
Stroke order from KanjiVG © Ulrich Apel, CC BY-SA 3.0. Readings and meanings from KANJIDIC2 © EDRDG, CC BY-SA 4.0.