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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

• 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
  
  

• 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
  
  

• 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
  
  

Try the Quiz : COLOURS, DAYS & MONTHS (IRO, YŌBI TO TSUKI)