whats the difference between hiragana and katagana?

[david1978]

Hi, im a new member and started with the newby lessons, but i got a bit lost with the kana, if im not mistaken kana is most used instead of kanji, but whats the difference between hiragana and katagana and whats their use?

thanks for the help
david ( Belgium)

[QuackingShoe]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_writing_system
Read that (most particularly http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_w ... of_scripts ), then read each of the major links at the top. That is,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanji
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiragana
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katakana

[gerald_ford]

Excellent links above. The 30-second summary is that hiragana is mostly used for native Japanese words, while katakana is used for foreign words. However, Katakana is sometimes used for kids words (easier to read, I guess), or for sound effects in manga.

Beyond that, you should definitely read the suggested links. Also, check out Tae Kim's excellent summary at:

http://www.guidetojapanese.org/hiragana.html

and:

http://www.guidetojapanese.org/katakana.html