Japanese Conversation: grammar and kanji growth

01

Katakana

In simple words

Katakana has the same sounds as hiragana but with sharp, angular shapes. Japanese uses it for foreign words, like カナダ (Kanada, Canada), コーヒー (kōhī, coffee) and ホテル (hoteru, hotel). Learn it and you can read a lot of signs and menus right away.

Before this course: Japanese for Beginners, course 6.6. You can already read the 46 basic hiragana, greet people politely, introduce yourself, count to ten and ask for the restroom. Here we add the second alphabet.

Key facts

Katakana is a sound-based script: each character is one syllable, the same sounds as hiragana.
It is used for foreign words, many place names, names of foreign people, and for emphasis.
The 46 basic katakana:

	a	i	u	e	o
(vowel)	ア a	イ i	ウ u	エ e	オ o
k	カ ka	キ ki	ク ku	ケ ke	コ ko
s	サ sa	シ shi	ス su	セ se	ソ so
t	タ ta	チ chi	ツ tsu	テ te	ト to
n	ナ na	ニ ni	ヌ nu	ネ ne	ノ no
h	ハ ha	ヒ hi	フ fu	ヘ he	ホ ho
m	マ ma	ミ mi	ム mu	メ me	モ mo
y	ヤ ya		ユ yu		ヨ yo
r	ラ ra	リ ri	ル ru	レ re	ロ ro
w	ワ wa				ヲ o
n	ン n

The long vowel mark ー stretches the vowel: コーヒー = kōhī.
A small ッ is a tiny pause before the next sound: ベッド = beddo (bed).
The marks ゛ and ゜ work like in hiragana: カ ka becomes ガ ga; ハ ha becomes バ ba and パ pa.
Small ャ, ュ, ョ make combined sounds: キャ = kya, シュ = shu, チョ = cho (the same idea as hiragana きゃ, しゅ, ちょ).
Look-alikes: シ (shi) and ツ (tsu); ソ (so) and ン (n). In シ and ン the short strokes are more horizontal; in ツ and ソ they are more vertical.

Word	Reading	Meaning
コーヒー	kōhī	coffee
ホテル	hoteru	hotel
バス	basu	bus
タクシー	takushī	taxi
スーパー	sūpā	supermarket
コンビニ	konbini	convenience store
ハンバーガー	hanbāgā	hamburger
トロント	toronto	Toronto

Step by step

Print the katakana chart from this lesson.
Learn one row a day, in the same order as hiragana: ア row, カ row, サ row, and so on.
Write each character five times while saying its sound.
Read the words in the table and guess the English word before you check.
Practise the look-alikes: write シ and ツ, then ソ and ン, five times each.
Write your own name in katakana (ask a teacher or use a chart to check).
Check: you can read all the words in the table without the romaji.

Watch on YouTube

Master all 46 katakanaKCP NihonGO! · YouTube · youtube.com

Videos by other creators on YouTube, for reference. They are not made by or affiliated with The Future Market.

LESSON 01Katakana

LESSON 01 / ANIMATED LESSON / AI VOICE00:00 / 01:00

Voice

Read the video script

[Host] "Katakana is hiragana's sharp-edged twin. Same sounds, new shapes."
[Text on screen: カキクケコ] "Learn it in rows: ka, ki, ku, ke, ko."
[Text on screen: コーヒー / ホテル / バス] "Then read what you see: kōhī, hoteru, basu. Coffee, hotel, bus."
[Host] "One row a day, and you can read menus in two weeks."

Try it now

Learn two katakana rows today. Write the eight words in the table in katakana from memory by the end of the week, and write your name in katakana.

ClaudeStuck? Copy a ready-made prompt for Claude

Copy this, open Claude, paste it, and Claude will walk you through the lesson step by step.

For a grown-up: Claude is for adults (18+). Copy this, paste it into Claude, and use the answer to explain the lesson to your child.

I'm learning "Japanese Conversation: grammar and kanji growth" on The Future Market. Lesson 1: "Katakana".

What the lesson teaches:
- Katakana is a sound-based script: each character is one syllable, the same sounds as hiragana.
- It is used for foreign words, many place names, names of foreign people, and for emphasis.
- The 46 basic katakana:
- a - i - u - e - o
- (vowel) - ア a - イ i - ウ u - エ e - オ o
- k - カ ka - キ ki - ク ku - ケ ke - コ ko
- s - サ sa - シ shi - ス su - セ se - ソ so

The exercise I'm working on:
Learn two katakana rows today. Write the eight words in the table in katakana from memory by the end of the week, and write your name in katakana.

I'm stuck. Please:
1. Explain the main idea in plain, simple words with one everyday example.
2. Walk me through the exercise one small step at a time. Ask me what I've done so far before giving the next step.
3. Don't just give me the final answer. Help me do it myself, and check my work when I share it.

I'm a parent helping my child (about 8 years old) with a lesson called "Katakana" from the course "Japanese Conversation: grammar and kanji growth".

Here's what the lesson says:
Katakana has the same sounds as hiragana but with sharp, angular shapes. Japanese uses it for foreign words, like カナダ (Kanada, Canada), コーヒー (kōhī, coffee) and ホテル (hoteru, hotel). Learn it and you can read a lot of signs and menus right away.

The activity:
Learn two katakana rows today. Write the eight words in the table in katakana from memory by the end of the week, and write your name in katakana.

Please explain this so an 8-year-old understands: short sentences, a fun everyday example, and no hard words.
Then give me 3 simple questions I can ask my child to check they understood, and a way to do the activity together, one tiny step at a time.

Open Claude

Sources

Japan Foundation, IRODORI Japanese for Life in Japan: www.irodori.jpf.go.jp/en/
Japanese-Language Proficiency Test (JLPT), summary of the levels: www.jlpt.jp/e/about/levelsummary.html

My notes

I learned this

02