Learn the Katakana Y column and more digraphs
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| Hi everyone! Welcome to BASIC JAPANESE WRITING. The fastest, easiest and most fun way to master the Japanese alphabet! |
| You've learned these 40 katakana characters from the previous lessons. |
| In this lesson, you'll learn three katakana characters in the Y column, and the rest of the digraphs in katakana. |
| ヤユヨ |
| The first katakana character for this lesson is ヤ. ヤ. |
| ヤ actually looks like its hiragana counterpart but a bit more angular and without this stroke. |
| Katakana ヤ is written in 2 strokes. |
| The first stroke is a long diagonal line going up then it turns sharply inwards and down. |
| The second stroke is a tall diagonal line which cuts through the first stroke around 1/3 from the left. |
| Ok, let's see it again. |
| The third katakana for this lesson is ユ. ユ. |
| Imagine ユ as the periscope of a U-BOAT under water. |
| Katakana ユ is written in 2 strokes. |
| The first stroke starts as a short horizontal line, then it turns sharply and continues down as a vertical line. |
| The second stroke is a long horizontal line touching the end of the first stroke. |
| Make sure the second stroke is longer than the horizontal part of the first stroke so that your ユ won't be confused with a katakana コ. |
| Ok, let's see it again. |
| Our final character for this lesson is the katakana ヨ. ヨ. |
| It's like a YOKE pulled by two oxen. |
| Katakana ヨ is written in 3 strokes. |
| The first stroke starts as a short horizontal line, then it turns sharply and continues down as a vertical line. |
| The second stroke is a horizontal line which touches the center of the vertical part of the first stroke. |
| The third stroke is another horizontal line, this time touching the bottom of the first stroke. |
| Ok, let's see it again. |
| Just like in hiragana, digraphs in katakana are also formed by adding a small ヤ, ユ, or ヨ to a consonant + "i" syllable. |
| Remember, they are said for the same duration as all the previous syllables that you've learned. Pronounce them by gliding to the Y-sound and do not pronounce the "i" sound. |
| キャ, キュ, キョ, ギャ, ギュ, ギョ. |
| シャ, シュ, ショ, ジャ, ジュ, ジョ. |
| チャ, チュ, チョ, ニャ, ニュ, ニョ. |
| ヒャ, ヒュ, ヒョ, ビャ, ビュ, ビョ, ピャ, ピュ, ピョ. |
| ミャ, ミュ, ミョ, リャ, リュ, リョ. |
| Let's see all the characters again. ヤ, ユ, ヨ. |
| And the digraphs: キャ, キュ, キョ, ギャ, ギュ, ギョ. |
| シャ, シュ, ショ, ジャ, ジュ, ジョ. |
| チャ, チュ, チョ, ニャ, ニュ, ニョ. |
| ヒャ, ヒュ, ヒョ, ビャ, ビュ, ビョ, ピャ, ピュ, ピョ. |
| ミャ, ミュ, ミョ, リャ, リュ, リョ. |
| Quiz time! |
| Now, let's review what you've learned. I'll show you a character or group of characters and give you time to say them. Ready? |
| ヤ. |
| ル. |
| ひ. Remember the smiling mouth going HIHIHI? |
| ユ. |
| ギ. |
| す. |
| ジョ. |
| ダイヤ. This is the time table for buses and trains. |
| メニュー. This means "menu." |
| ジュース. It's "juice." |
| Tシャツ. It means "t-shirt." |
| バーベキュー. This means "barbecue." |
| チョコレート. This is "chocolate." |
| ニャーニャー. This is a cat's "meow" in Japanese. |
| キャッシュカード. This refers to a bank card. |
| Great job! As I've said before, Japanese uses 3 scripts: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. However, recently Japanese also started to make use of Roman letters just like in Tシャツ. We even have the expression "NG" which is an abbreviation of "no good." |
| Ok, let's wrap up this lesson by recapping what you've learned. |
| In this lesson, you learned the katakana characters ヤ, ユ and ヨ and all the Japanese digraphs. |
| よくできました！You've now mastered 89 Japanese characters. Only 3 left to go! |
| If cats say "nyaa nyaa," what do dogs say? Find out next time when we talk about the final 3 characters in katakana! |
| Before you go, practice writing the following words on your own! |
| [pause] |
| And to learn MORE Japanese, go to JapanesePod101.com. |
| Hey guys! How many ways are YOU studying with JapanesePod101? From mobile apps, to Facebook pages, to our popular vocabulary lists, JapanesePod101 offers many different outlets for our listeners to study with us. Find out 15 different ways to study Japanese for FREE with JapanesePod101 now! |
| See you in the next lesson! またね！ |
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