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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 : kuroi
  - Hiragana : くろい ;  Kanji : 黒い
  
  
• blue : aoiro
  - Hiragana : あおいろ ;  Kanji : 青色
  
  
• brown : chairo
  - Hiragana : ちゃいろい ;  Kanji : 茶色
  
  
• green : midori
  - Hiragana : みどりいろ ;  Kanji : 緑色
  
  
• grey : haiiro
  - Hiragana : はいいろ ;  Kanji : 灰色, 鼠色
  
  
• orange : enshoku
  - Hiragana : えんしょく ;  Kanji : 炎色
  
  
• pink : tankoushoku
  - Hiragana : たんこうしょく ;  Kanji : 淡紅色
  
  
• purple : murasaki
  - Hiragana : むらさきいろ ;  Kanji : 紫
  
  
• red : akai
  - Hiragana : あかい ;  Kanji : 赤い
  
  
• silver : kiniro
  - Hiragana : ぎんいろ  ;  Kanji : 銀色
  
  
• white : shiroi
  - Hiragana : しろい ;  Kanji : 白
  
  
• yellow : kiiro
  - Hiragana : きいろ ;  Kanji : 黄色
  
  

• Monday : getsuyoubi, getsuyōbi
  - Hiragana : げつようび ;  Kanji : 月曜日
  
  
• Tuesday : kayoubi, kayōbi
  - Hiragana : かようび ;  Kanji : 火曜日
  
  
• Wednesday : suiyoubi, suiyōbi
  - Hiragana : すいようび ;  Kanji : 水曜日
  
  
• Thursday : mokuyoubi, mokuyōbi
  - Hiragana : もくようび ;  Kanji : 木曜日
  
  
• Friday : kinyoubi, kinyōbi
  - Hiragana : きんようび ;  Kanji : 金曜日
  
  
• Saturday : doyoubi, doyōbi
  - Hiragana : どようび ;  Kanji : 土曜日
  
  
• Sunday : nichiyoubi, nichiyōbi
  - Hiragana : にちようび ;  Kanji : 日曜日
  
  

• January : ichigastu
  - Hiragana : いちがつ ;  Kanji : 一月
  
  
• February : nigatsu
  - Hiragana : にがつ ;  Kanji : 二月
  
  
• March : sangatsu
  - Hiragana : さんがつ ;  Kanji : 三月
  
  
• April : shigatsu
  - Hiragana : しがつ ;  Kanji : 四月
  
  
• May : gogatsu
  - Hiragana : ごがつ ;  Kanji : 五月
  
  
• June : rokugatsu
  - Hiragana : ろくがつ ;  Kanji : 六月
  
  
• July : shichigatsu
  - Hiragana : しちがつ ;  Kanji : 七月
  
  
• August : hachigatsu
  - Hiragana : はちがつ ;  Kanji : 八月
  
  
• September : kugatsu
  - Hiragana : くがつ ;  Kanji : 九月
  
  
• October : juugatsu, jūgatsu
  - Hiragana : じゅうがつ ;  Kanji : 十月
  
  
• November : juuichigatsu, jūichigatsu
  - Hiragana : じゅういちがつ ;  Kanji : 十一月
  
  
• December : juunigatsu, jūinigatsu
  - Hiragana : じゅうにがつ ;  Kanji : 十二月
  
  

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