Katakana facts for kids

Katakana is a Japanese script (a way of writing). It's used mostly for writing words that come from other languages, like "computer" or "ice cream."

It's often easier to read than kanji, which are like picture characters from Chinese. Once you learn the 46 main Katakana symbols, you'll know how to say them!

Katakana and hiragana are both syllabaries. This means each symbol stands for a whole sound block, called a syllable. Think of it like this: in English, we use letters, and each letter makes a small sound. For example, "Wagamama" has eight letters. But if you break it into syllables, it's "Wa-ga-ma-ma" – four sound blocks. In Katakana, you write "Wagamama" with four symbols: ワガママ.

Hiragana works in a similar way, but its symbols look different. Katakana symbols are often simpler and more "squared off," which some people find a bit easier to learn than Hiragana. Together, Katakana and Hiragana are called "Kana."

Learning Katakana Symbols

This section shows the basic Katakana symbols. Some characters marked in red are not used much today.

The first table shows 46 basic characters. Some sounds, like "myu" in "music," are called diphthongs. These are vowels that smoothly change from one sound to another. In Katakana, they are written with an extra small symbol. For example, "music" is written ミュージカル (mi+yu+u+ji+ka+ru). A long vowel sound is shown with a dash, called a "choon" (ー).

How Katakana is Used

Katakana is mainly used for words borrowed from other languages. It's also for foreign names and country names. For example, America is written アメリカ.

It can be tricky to recognize these words because Japanese doesn't have all the same sounds as English. So, Japanese speakers find other ways to say and write them. For instance, "coffee" becomes コーヒー (koo-hii). Sometimes, words are even shortened, like "television" becoming テレビ (te-re-bi).

Sometimes, two different foreign words might sound the same in Japanese. For example, ラーラー could be "Lara" or "Lala" (like the Teletubbies character). This is because Japanese has one sound that's between our "r" and "l."

In Japanese, a consonant is almost always followed by a vowel. Words or syllables usually don't end in a consonant (except for "n" or "m"). So, Japanese adds an extra vowel. "Ski" (as in skiing) becomes "suki" (スキ). As we saw, "musical" becomes "myuujikaru" (ミュージカル).

Katakana is also used for onomatopoeic words, which are words that sound like what they describe, like "ding." It can also make words look important or be used for scientific names, like names of birds. Sometimes, in books or cartoons, sentences are written in Katakana to show that someone is speaking with a foreign accent. You'll also see it for names of Japanese companies, like Suzuki (スズキ) and Toyota (トヨタ).

A small "tsu" ッ is called a "sokuon." It shows what we would write as a double consonant. For example, the English word "bed" is used in Japanese for a Western-style bed. It's pronounced "beddo" and written ベッド. The small ッ makes the "e" vowel sound short.

Learning Katakana is helpful for reading signs in Japan or items on restaurant menus. Japanese sentences often mix Katakana, Hiragana, and Kanji. For example: アメリカ人です (amerikajin desu: I am American). Here, "amerika" is in Katakana, "jin" (人) is Kanji, and "desu" is in Hiragana.

Related pages

• Japanese language
• Hiragana
• Writing system
• Syllabary

Images for kids

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  Collection of Poems by Priest Myōe, 1248

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  In this travel warning, the kanji for "fog" (霧) has been written in katakana (キリ) to make it more immediately readable

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  Syougaku11

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  A page of the Meiji Constitution written exclusively with kyūjitai and katakana

See also

In Spanish: Katakana para niños