Colours, Days & Months : English - Japanese 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 Word - Romaji (Nihongo no Kotoba) : Writing in Japanese Scripts - Hiragana / Katakana & Kanji
- 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
YŌBI (DAYS OF THE WEEK)
English Word (Eigo no Kotoba) : Japanese Word - Romaji (Nihongo no Kotoba) : Writing in Japanese Scripts - Hiragana / Katakana & Kanji
- 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
TOSHI NO TSUKI (MONTHS OF THE YEAR)
English Word (Eigo no Kotoba) : Japanese Word - Romaji (Nihongo no Kotoba) : Writing in Japanese Scripts - Hiragana / Katakana & Kanji
- 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