Colours, Days & Months : English - Japanese Hiragana Translation Game |
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Try the Quiz : COLOURS, DAYS & MONTHS (IRO, YŌBI TO TSUKI)
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Usage of Japanese Scripts
- There are 3 Japanese scripts : Hiragana, Katakana & Kanji. Most of the Japanese sentences are written in Hiragana, Katakana & Kanji, all three.
- Hiragana is used for the endings of verbs and for grammatical particles.
- Katakana is used for transcription of words borrowed from foreign languages (except Chinese), like country names, personal names, etc.
- Both Hiragana and Katakana letters are phonetic representations of sound, representing exactly the same set of sounds.
- Kanji, which is a set of Chinese characters called sinograms, is used for the nouns and the radicals of verbs.
- The Hiragana script has a Kanji equivalent (excepts the endings of verbs and the particles).
- The Katakana script does not have a Kanji equivalent.
- Whereas Hiragana and Katakana are phonetic representations of sound, Kanji conveys sounds as well as meanings.
- A sentence in Japanese can be written in Hiragana and Katakana only (without Kanji).
- Romaji (Roman letters) is simply the transliteration of Japanese in the Latin script. It is sometimes used for the convenience of foreigners, mostly on sign-boards and at stations.
- The Romaji vowelsā, ī, ū, ē signify emphasis, and hence are also written asaa, ii, uu et ee. ex. īe = iie
- The vowel ō becomes ou and not oo ex. gakkō = gakkou
- In Katakana, the emphasis on the vowel signifies a long sound written as ー. ex. nōto (notebook), will be written in katakana as : ノート
Example. The sentence 'The department store is closed on Mondays' is written in :
Japanese Romaji : Depāto wa getsuyōbi ni yasumi desu ;
Japanese traditional (Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji) : デパートは月曜日に休みです。; where
Kanji = 月曜日 (getsuyōbi = Monday),休み (yasumi = holiday) ; Katakana = デパート(depāto = department store) and the rest is Hiragana.
Japanese Hiragana and Katakana (without Kanji) : デパートはげつようびにやすみです。
Note - The Kanjis in the sentence written in Japanese traditional, 月曜日 and 休み are replaced by their hiragana equivalents げつようび (getsuyōbi) andやすみ(yasumi) respectively.
Note :
は (ha) is read (wa) only when it is used as the particle attached to the noun or the subject of a sentence.
In other words, one writes は not わ for the particle wa.
は(wa) is always used after the subject.
In the example above, は(wa) comes after the subject depāto デパート (department store) .
Kanji is sometimes written in combination with Hiragana.
In the above example yasumi (holiday) is written in Kanji as 休み and in Hiragana as やすみ. Note the み (mi) in Kanji.
Romaji Vocabulary Hiragana Vocabulary Katakana Vocabulary Kanji Vocabulary
Hiragana Alphabets Katakana Alphabets Kanji Characters Tables
IRO (COLOURS)
English Word (Eigo no Kotoba) : Japanese Hiragana word (Nihongo Hiragana no Kotoba) : Romaji & Kanji Scripts
- black : くろい
- Romaji : kuroi
Kanji : 黒い - blue : あおいろ
- Romaji : aoiro
Kanji : 青色 - brown : ちゃいろい
- Romaji : chairo
Kanji : 茶色 - green : みどりいろ
- Romaji : midoriiro
Kanji : 緑色 - grey : はいいろ, ねずみいろ
- Romaji : haiiro, nezumiiro
Kanji : 灰色, 鼠色 - orange : えんしょく
- Romaji : enshoku
Kanji : 炎色 - pink : たんこうしょく
- Romaji : tankōshoku
Kanji : 淡紅色 - purple : むらさきいろ
- Romaji : murasaki
Kanji : 紫 - red : あかい
- Romaji : akai
Kanji : 赤い - silver : ぎんいろ
- Romaji : kiniro
Kanji : 銀色 - white : しろい
- Romaji : shiroi
Kanji : 白 - yellow : きいろ
- Romaji : kiiro
Kanji : 黄色
YŌBI (DAYS OF THE WEEK)
English Word (Eigo no Kotoba) : Japanese Hiragana word (Nihongo Hiragana no Kotoba) : Romaji & Kanji Scripts
- Monday : げつようび
- Romaji : getsuyōbi
Kanji : 月曜日 - Tuesday : かよう
- Romaji : hayōbi
Kanji : 火曜日 - Wednesday : すいようび
- Romaji : suiyōbi
Kanji : 水曜日 - Thursday : もくようび
- Romaji : mokuyōbi
Kanji : 木曜日 - Friday : きんようび
- Romaji : kinyōbi
Kanji : 金曜日 - Saturday : どようび
- Romaji : doyōbi
Kanji : 土曜日 - Sunday : にちようび
- Romaji : nichiyōbi
Kanji : 日曜日
TOSHI NO TSUKI (MONTHS OF THE YEAR)
English Word (Eigo no Kotoba) : Japanese Hiragana word (Nihongo Hiragana no Kotoba) : Romaji & Kanji Scripts
- January : いちがつ
- Romaji : ichigastu
Kanji : 一月 - February : にがつ
- Romaji : nigatsu
Kanji : 二月 - March : さんがつ
- Romaji : sangatsu
Kanji : 三月 - April : しがつ
- Romaji : shigatsu
Kanji : 四月 - May : ごがつ
- Romaji : gogatsu
Kanji : 五月 - June : ろくがつ
- Romaji : rokugatsu
Kanji : 六月 - July : しちがつ
- Romaji : shichigatsu
Kanji : 七月 - August : はちがつ
- Romaji : hachigatsu
Kanji : 八月 - September : くがつ
- Romaji : kugatsu
Kanji : 九月 - October : じゅうがつ
- Romaji : jūgatsu
Kanji : 十月 - November : じゅういちがつ
- Romaji : jūichigatsu
Kanji : 十一月 - December : じゅうにがつ
- Romaji : jūinigatsu
Kanji : 十二月