Try the Quiz : BASIC WORDS (KIHON-TEKI NA KOTOBA)

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Usage of Japanese Scripts

• There are 3 Japanese scripts : Hiragana, Katakana & Kanji. Mostof 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 /  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 'There is a lake in Geneva.' is written in :

Japanese Romaji : Junēbu ni mizūmi ga arimasu ;

Japanese traditional (Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji) : ジュネーブに湖が あります。; where
Kanji = 湖 (mizūmi = lake) ; Katakana = ジュネーブ (Junēbu = Geneva) and the rest is Hiragana.

Japanese Hiragana and Katakana (without Kanji) : ジュネーブにみずうみが あります。
The Kanji in the sentence written in Japanese traditional, 湖 is replaced its hiragana equivalent みずうみ.

Note : Lake becomes 'ko' when attached to a place name. ex. Lake Geneva = Junēbu ko (not Junēbu mizūmi). 

Romaji Vocabulary   Hiragana Vocabulary  Katakana Vocabulary  Kanji Vocabulary

Hiragana Alphabets  Katakana Alphabets  Kanji Characters Tables