Colours, Days & Months : English - Japanese Kanji 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 Kanji word (Nihongo Kanji no Kotoba) : Romaji & Hiragana Scripts
- black : 黒い
- Romaji : kuroi
Hiragana : くろい - blue : 青色
- Romaji : aoiro
Hiragana : あおいろ - brown : 茶色
- Romaji : chairo
Hiragana : ちゃいろい - green : 緑色
- Romaji : midoriiro
Hiragana : みどりいろ - grey : 灰色, 鼠色
- Romaji : haiiro, nezumiiro
Hiragana : はいいろ, ねずみいろ - orange : 炎色
- Romaji : enshoku
Hiragana : えんしょく - pink : 淡紅色
- Romaji : tankōshoku
Hiragana : たんこうしょく - purple : 紫
- Romaji : murasaki
Hiragana : むらさきいろ - red : 赤い
- Romaji : akai
Hiragana : あかい - silver : 銀色
- Romaji : kiniro
Hiragana : ぎんいろ - white : 白
- Romaji : shiroi
Hiragana : しろい - yellow : 黄色
- Romaji : kiiro
Hiragana : きいろ
YŌBI (DAYS OF THE WEEK)
English Word (Eigo no Kotoba) : Japanese Kanji word (Nihongo Kanji no Kotoba) : Romaji & Hiragana Scripts
- Monday : 月曜日
- Romaji : getsuyōbi
Hiragana : げつようび - Tuesday : 火曜日
- Romaji : hayōbi
Hiragana : かよう - Wednesday : 水曜日
- Romaji : suiyōbi
Hiragana : すいようび - Thursday : 木曜日
- Romaji : mokuyōbi
Hiragana : もくようび - Friday : 金曜日
- Romaji : kinyōbi
Hiragana : きんようび - Saturday : 土曜日
- Romaji : doyōbi
Hiragana : どようび - Sunday : 日曜日
- Romaji : nichiyōbi
Hiragana : にちようび
TOSHI NO TSUKI (MONTHS OF THE YEAR)
English Word (Eigo no Kotoba) : Japanese Kanji word (Nihongo Kanji no Kotoba) : Romaji & Hiragana Scripts
- January : 一月
- Romaji : ichigastu
Hiragana : いちがつ - February : 二月
- Romaji : nigatsu
Hiragana : にがつ - March : 三月
- Romaji : sangatsu
Hiragana : さんがつ - April : 四月
- Romaji : shigatsu
Hiragana : しがつ - May : 五月
- Romaji : gogatsu
Hiragana : ごがつ - June : 六月
- Romaji : rokugatsu
Hiragana : ろくがつ - July : 七月
- Romaji : shichigatsu
Hiragana : しちがつ - August : 八月
- Romaji : hachigatsu
Hiragana : はちがつ - September : 九月
- Romaji : kugatsu
Hiragana : くがつ - October : 十月
- Romaji : jūgatsu
Hiragana : じゅうがつ - November : 十一月
- Romaji : jūichigatsu
Hiragana : じゅういちがつ - December : 十二月
- Romaji : jūinigatsu
Hiragana : じゅうにがつ