Lesson 1-4 — Katakana

Reading Practice

Test yourself — can you read these before checking the answers? Many are country names and character names, which are excellent early practice.

Katakana	Answer
ヤナ	Yana
ロシア	Russia
アメリカ	America
カナダ	Canada
ドイツ	Germany
パナマ	Panama
ルフィ	Luffy
サンジ	Sanji
カイドウ	Kaido
ゾロ	Zoro
トム	Tom
アンソニー	Anthony
ジョージ	George
キャサリン	Catherine
キャンベラ	Canberra
パース	Perth

💡 Notice how foreign sounds get adapted to Japanese syllables. “Germany” becomes ドイツ (from the German Deutsch), and English “th” sounds (as in Anthony) become サ or ジ, since Japanese has no “th.” Learning these adaptation patterns will help you read and even guess new katakana words.

Long Vowels in Katakana — 長音符（ちょうおんぷ）

In katakana, long vowel sounds are written with a horizontal dash: ー. This dash extends the vowel of the preceding character by one full beat (mora).

In hiragana, long vowels are written by adding an extra vowel character (e.g. おかあさん). In katakana, the dash ー replaces that extra vowel.

Katakana	Romaji	Meaning
ルール	rūru	rule
ミーム	mīmu	meme
ルーム	rūmu	room
コーヒー	kōhī	coffee
ケーキ	kēki	cake

⚠️ Vowel length changes meaning! In Japanese, a long vowel and a short vowel are completely different sounds — and can mean completely different words. Always pay attention to the ー:

• ビル (biru) = building vs ビール (bīru) = beer
• おばさん (aunt) vs おばあさん (grandmother) — the same principle in hiragana

Getting the length wrong can turn “beer” into “building,” so this is well worth mastering early.

The Katakana Chart

	a	i	u	e	o
Vowels	ア	イ	ウ	エ	オ
K	カ	キ	ク	ケ	コ
S	サ	シ	ス	セ	ソ
T	タ	チ	ツ	テ	ト
N	ナ	ニ	ヌ	ネ	ノ
H	ハ	ヒ	フ	ヘ	ホ
M	マ	ミ	ム	メ	モ
Y	ヤ	—	ユ	—	ヨ
R	ラ	リ	ル	レ	ロ
W	ワ	—	—	—	ヲ
N	ン

💡 Hiragana vs Katakana: The two scripts represent identical sounds — カ and か are both “ka.” The only differences are their shapes and the contexts in which they’re used. Katakana characters tend to be more angular and made of straighter lines, while hiragana are more rounded and flowing. Mastering both scripts is essential for reading Japanese.

Easily Confused Pairs

Several katakana characters look strikingly similar and are a common source of errors. Pay close attention to these:

Pair	Characters	How to tell them apart
so / n	ソ / ン	ソ’s stroke comes down at a steeper, vertical angle; ン’s stroke sweeps up more horizontally
tsu / shi	ツ / シ	ツ’s dashes sit on top (think of つ); シ’s dashes sit on the side (think of し)
u / wa	ウ / ワ	ウ has a small top stroke; ワ does not
nu / me	ヌ / メ	ヌ has an extra stroke crossing through; メ is just the cross
ku / ta	ク / タ	タ has an extra internal stroke; ク is simpler

💡 A memory trick for ツ vs シ: Look at the direction of the small strokes. In ツ (tsu), they point downward like the strokes of hiragana つ. In シ (shi), they sweep sideways/upward like hiragana し. Connecting each katakana to its hiragana partner makes the difference stick.

Katakana Contracted Sounds (拗音)

Just as in hiragana, contracted sounds in katakana are formed by combining a consonant character (from the い-column) with a small ャ, ュ, or ョ.

	＋ャ (ya)	＋ュ (yu)	＋ョ (yo)
ky	キャ kya	キュ kyu	キョ kyo
gy	ギャ gya	ギュ gyu	ギョ gyo
sh	シャ sha	シュ shu	ショ sho
j	ジャ ja	ジュ ju	ジョ jo
ch	チャ cha	チュ chu	チョ cho
ny	ニャ nya	ニュ nyu	ニョ nyo
hy	ヒャ hya	ヒュ hyu	ヒョ hyo
by	ビャ bya	ビュ byu	ビョ byo
py	ピャ pya	ピュ pyu	ピョ pyo
my	ミャ mya	ミュ myu	ミョ myo
ry	リャ rya	リュ ryu	リョ ryo

💡 Extended katakana for foreign sounds: Because katakana must represent foreign words, it uses some combinations that don’t exist in hiragana — created to capture sounds Japanese doesn’t natively have:

• ティ (ti) — パーティー (party)
• ディ (di) — ディズニー (Disney)
• ファ・フィ・フェ・フォ (fa/fi/fe/fo) — カフェ (café), フォーク (fork)
• ヴ (vu) — ヴィオラ (viola)

You’ll encounter these often in loanwords. They follow the same small-kana logic you already know.

Summary

Point	Key takeaway
Purpose	Foreign words, names, emphasis, onomatopoeia
Sounds	Identical to hiragana — only the shapes differ
Long vowels	Written with the dash ー (not an extra vowel)
Contracted sounds	Consonant ＋ small ャ/ュ/ョ, same as hiragana
Watch out for	ソ/ン, ツ/シ, ヌ/メ — easily confused pairs

💡 Study tip: The best way to master katakana is through loanwords you already know. Practice reading menus (コーヒー, ケーキ, サラダ), brand names, and character names. Because you already know the meaning, you can focus entirely on recognizing the shapes — turning katakana practice into something genuinely fun.