Learn how to read and write katakana characters, ワ, ヲ, and ン
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| みなさんこんにちは。(Mina-san, konnichiwa) Hi everyone, I am Chihiro and welcome back to JapanesePod101.com’s Kantan kana. In the last lesson, we learned the katakana characters ラ(ra), リ(ri), ル(ru), レ(re) and ロ(ro). If you are still feeling a little unsure of these, go back and review the previous lesson. This is the last lesson where you will learn your katakana. Great job coming this far, hang in there for just a little longer. Today we are going to cover ワ(wa), ヲ(o) and ン(n). |
| We will begin with ワ(wa). Remember フ(fu)? ワ(wa) looks similar but it has an extra line here. Here is ワルツ(warutsu) “waltz,” the ballroom dance. And here is ワークシート(wākushīto) “worksheet”. |
| Now remember when we learned the hiragana を(o) we said that it was a particle. Well since its part of the grammar structure, the katakana ヲ(o) is rarely used but let’s learn it anyway since you might see it written from time to time. Here is ヲ(o). 1, 2. Another one that looks like フ(fu) but this time with the horizontal line inside. |
| Okay our last character for the whole series is ン(n) and it looks like this. Like its hiragana counterpart, it’s the only character that represents a consonant and nowhere will start with ン(n). |
| Remember ソ(so)? These two look very similar. So be careful. When writing ン(n), note that you write the second stroke going from bottom to top. When you compare them, the ン(n) looks a little laid back and the ソ(so) looks a little bit taller. |
| Here is an onomatopoeia quote for you. Japanese actually has a word that describes the sound of silence. It’s シーン(shīn). You might see this written in Manga during a very quiet scene. The other word we have is スクリーン(sukurīn) which is what you are looking at right now, a screen. |
| And that’s it, you have finished learning all the hiragana and katakana, great job but before we go, let’s have a short quiz. I will show you a word in katakana and you read it. Bonus points as usual if you remember what it means. |
| ワークシート(wākushīto), “worksheet” |
| ワルツ(warutsu), “waltz” |
| スクリーン(sukurīn,) “screen” |
| Now it’s time for Chihiro’s tip. Have you noticed that some foreign words that you would usually expect to see in katakana or in hiragana, that’s done on purpose to give a different feel to the word again. And this way, Japanese uses both katakana and hiragana in order to convey different nuances. Now you’ve learned all the characters of katakana and hiragana, congratulations but before we let you go, we want you to know a few extra things you can do with katakana that you can’t usually do with hiragana. So hope to see you next time for the last lesson. |
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