Japanese Writing

• Hiragana (平仮名 / ひらがな) is the main form of Japanese syllabaries.
• Katakana (片仮名 / かたかな) is a form of Japanese syllabaries that is more often used for foreign words.
• Kanji (漢字 / かんじ) are a collection of Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese writing system.

Kana Charts

Hiragana

Hiragana

Full Hiragana

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Katakana

Full Katakana

Katakana is used for any foreign or 'borrowed' words. Basically, most words from a foreign language would be written in this form. Think of it as a way that a reader would know the difference between a foreign word or a Japanese word that is spelled or sounds similar. This is system all based on phonetics, how the words sound. I could best describe it as one of those games where you say a collection of words that when said fast enough together sounds as if you are saying something completely different.

Katakana can at times be more difficult to read and remember how to write the characters. That's because many are written nearly the same way, but the stroke order varies slightly. You will see these in the characters for So & N, and Shi & Tsu.

Rare W-base Katakana

There are two particular Katakana from the W-Base that are considered to be obsolete. They are ヱ (We) & ヰ (Wi). Neither of these are likly to ever appear.

Katakana Vowel Base Modifiers

This is a list of more modifiers you are likely to see. These are similar to the small tsu modifier since they are smaller version of another kana that are places after a larger kana. These are used to alter the way the character is pronounced when trying to spell out foreign words (particularly Chinese). Some are going to be more rare than others. You might of seen these before in anime characters names such as Luffy (ルフィ, rufi). One of the more peculiar cases in the is for the characters of the V sounds in the second row. That is actually the Katakana for ウ (U) with a Dakuten. Add a Dakuten to the ウ (U) and you get ヴ (Vu).

Other Ya, Yu, & Yo Base Modifiers

This is the list of modifiers using the small kana of Ya Yu and Yo. These forms are rarely ever used.

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