Learn how to read and write katakana punctuation
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| 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 ワ(wa), ヲ(o) and ン(n). If you are still feeling a little unsure of these, go back and review the previous lesson. Now you know all the kana. In this lesson, we will review some concepts taught in lesson 11 and apply them to some katakana characters. |
| We will start with てんてん(tenten). Do you remember how to make voice sounds? Right, you add てんてん(tenten) to the character which are the little markings on the top right. This goes for all 20 katakana characters as well. For example, when we add てんてん(tenten) the カキクケコ(kakikukeko) row becomes ガギグゲゴ(gagigugego). Now we can write ギター(gitā) or guitar. Remember in hiragana, we could also do this with the soft word. The same thing applies here サシスセソ(sashisuseso) becomes ザジズゼゾ(zajizuzezo). Here is ザラザラ(zarazara). The word that describes a rough surface. Again タチツテト(tachitsuteto) becomes ダヂヅデド(dajizudedo). You might not see ヂ(ji) and ヅ(zu) as often as ジ(ji) and ズ(zu) but they are used from time to time. Since the pronunciation is the same, it might be a little hard to guess. So double check before writing it. For now, let’s write ドア(doa) “door”. The last characters we can add てんてん(tenten to ハヒフヘホ(hahifuheho) which become バビブベボ(babibubebo). A word you might hear often in Japan is アルバイト(arubaito) which means part time job and comes from the word for “work” in Germany. Likewise, if you add a まる(maru) or the circle to the katakana counterpart, ハヒフヘ(hahifuhe) and ホ(ho) it becomes パピプペポ(papipupepo) . Let’s write パパイヤ(papaiya) “a papaya” and プロペラ(puropera), “propeller”. Now for some little catches. Do you remember the little ヤユヨ(yayuyo)? In katakana, you can also make the ア(a) row small. Here are examples of some words that use the smaller characters. シェアー(sheā) which is “share” and ティッシュ(tisshu) which is “tissue”. These smaller characters are used to create combinations of sounds that are not usually heard in Japanese. You are all familiar with Wikipedia right? When rendered into Japanese, we get ウィキペディア(Wikipedia) which also uses the smaller characters. So if you keep your eyes open, you will definitely see combinations that seem unusual. Katakana is more flexible than hiragana in this way in that it can bend the rules according to what needs to be conveyed. |
| Let’s have a short quiz. I will say the word and you try to write it in katakana. Bonus points if you remember what they mean. |
| アルバイト(arubaito), “part time job” |
| シェアー(sheā), “share” |
| ウィキペディア(Wikipedia), “Wikipedia” |
| パパイヤ(papaiya), “papaya” |
| Popeye. Now it’s time for Chihiro’s tip. This is an overall tip about pronunciation. If you speak English as your first language, it’s easy to want to stress certain syllables in a word. For example, “important” or “project”. When speaking Japanese, try to shut this habit. All of the syllables in a word get more or less the same amount of time and stress. We will take a look at some hiragana and katakana around us in the next lesson. I will see you then. |
Comments
HideMina-san, do any of you use てんてん in how you write your name in Japanese (for example, ジョン)? If not, tell us your favourite Japanese katakana word using てんてん! :)
Gaynorさん
コメントありがとうございます😄
Yes, that's correct👍
Please let us know if you have any questions :)
Sincerely
りょうま（Ryoma）
Team JapanesePod101.com
I think my name is ゲイノー?
Hi Alejandra,
Thank you for your comment!
We are really happy to have you here😊
Hope you enjoy learning Japanese with us:)
Sincerely,
Miho
Team JapanesePod101.com
Hi.!
I'm Alejandra, i think it writes this way: アレハンドラ
My 1st language is Spanish, so, it a little dificult learn through english, but i really enjoy your lessons.!
Thank you so much.!
Harald Klein さん、
こんにちは！
I'm very sorry for the late reply!!
Thank you for a kind consideration for us!! :)
Yes; your name would be as you wrote.
Town/city names are often written with original pronunciation and it seems like
Mainz is マインツ in Japanese.
It seems Rheinland-Pfalz is ラインランド・プファルツ...
Does it close to the original sound?
Natsuko (奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com
Japanesepod101-チーム、こんいちは。
I hope every one of your team is doing fine since I am writing this at the time when Hurricane Irma is hitting the land. If some of you or your relatives might be affected, good luck and stay safe!
Now that I've completed カタカナ (片仮名), I'd like to give my name a shot: Harald Klein would be ハラルド・クライン , or am I wrong there ("Klein" actually is pronounced like the English version "Cline" and has the meaning of 小(さな) in German (I always wonder if I would name myself "Small" or "Little" if I'd ever decided to emigrate. ^^ - Well, anyway ...)).
I also would like to try to transcribe the town name "Mainz". Would it be マインツ , or would you rather use the French version "Mayence" for transcription into Japanese like マヨース , which, as I experienced, is often used in English instead of the original German name?
Last but not least, I'd assume that the name of the state, "Rheinland-Pfalz" could be transcribed like ラインランド・ファルス , right?
Thank you in advance for taking the time to read my comment.
ありがとうございます。
Harald Klein
Asa san,
Konnichiwa.
You are welcome.
Douitashimashite.?
Yuki 由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com
Thank you!
Asa さん、
Konnichiwa.
The answer is ‘yes’, when the u is katakana only.
?
Yuki 由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com
Konnichiwa Japanesepod101.com!
Does adding tenten to the letter u make it a v sound?
I've seen that in many places so I'm just wondering
Sarahさん こんにちは。
Thank you for your comment!
You have a good question.
The answer is that native speakers use all of three characters on writing.
You can write in hiragana and katakana because that is what Japanese kids do before they learn kanji.
As you mentioned, katakana is used for writing names, but mostly foreign names, like Peter, Chris, and your name, Sarah. Some anime has characters who have their name in katakana, like Pokemon, but it's not common in daily life.
We use the mixture of kanji and hiragana&katakana sometimes to help readers to read easily.
It's because kanji convey sounds and meanings at the same time.
For more details, the video lesson, "Introduction to Japanese Lesson 4. Introduction to Japanese Writing" will help you.
https://www.japanesepod101.com/2016/03/25/introduction-to-japanese-4-introduction-to-japanese-writing/
Hope this helps,
Motoko
Team JapanesePod101.com
●こんいちは
Please can you answer this question:
I don't know where and when to use hiragana's and when to use katakana's and where to use kanji's,it's like when I'm writing something in Japanese,I don't know if I have to use hiragana's or katakana's or kanji's. The only thing that I know is that we use katakana's to write names(like yukine and hiyori and my name Sarah......)but truly I'm not sure if it's right 100%.
Sateek-san,
konnichiwa!
I'm not too sure, but isn't -ee- in your name Sateek is pronounced long, like the alphabet E?
In Japanese, making a difference between short and long sounds is important and we
do distinguish them. So, if your name is supposed to be pronounced like
sa tii k
it'd be サティーク [sa tii ku] and if it's a short sound (satik), it'd be サティク [sa ti ku],
but if it's with a little pause like 'satick', then it'd be サティック [sa ti kku].
Is your surname Roy or Roj?
And how is it pronounced?
Natsuko (奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com
Konnichiwa! My name is Sateek Roy. I'm guessing "サティク" should be Sateek in Japanese. However, I'm not quite sure how to write Roy. Also could you tell me how to write Raj in Japanese?
James-san,
konnichiwa!
As you know, 'ten ten' above う ([u] sound) didn't exist because it's a sound that originally did not
exist in Japanese. However, 'originally not existing' does not mean we didn't need to have it.
We adopt a lot of foreign words with foreign sounds, and this 'ten ten' above う is one of them.
I believe what you meant was ヴィ [vi] and yes, you can write this way, but it doesn't mean
we pronounce V like English V. Most of us would pronounce with B instead of V.
> Can you put ten-ten on the vowels? How exactly do they sound like?
↓
The only vowel that can have 'ten ten' would be う [u] and it's always written in katakana
for the reason I explained above. Sound would be morel like B.
> Another: How do I pull the long A sound, as in “hay”. My name is James, and I am quite satisfied with ジェームズ. But I got curious and ventured into this: ジェィームズ. Is that valid? Two small vowels?
↓
Two small vowels do not work simply because there's no such sound.
If you still want to put [i] sound in your name, the closest would be ジェイムス
> One more: Is the “L” sound generally represented by “ru”?
↓
If you mean L without being followed by any vowel, yes, that's possible.
Hope this helps!
Natsuko (奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com
Konnichiwa, team Japanesepod101,
My Japanese co-worker showed me that I can write ten-ten with the vowel "u" + small "i" to pull out the "v" sound. From a response to one of the questions below, I see this being done: ケヴィン. So:
Can you put ten-ten on the vowels? How exactly do they sound like?
Another: How do I pull the long A sound, as in "hay". My name is James, and I am quite satisfied with ジェームズ. But I got curious and ventured into this: ジェィームズ. Is that valid? Two small vowels?
One more: Is the "L" sound generally represented by "ru"?
Obviously, I didn't get answers from my co-worker because her English is better than my Japanese, if you know what I mean. :)
Arigatou gozaimashita!
Alex san,
konnichiwa.
Thank you for your question.
Could you please refer to the page below?
https://www.japanesepod101.com/learn-katakana/
Jennifer san,
Konnichiwa.
Your name should be ジェニファー in Japanese.
:smile:
Yuki 由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com
my name is Jennifer so in Katakana could be… ヂェン ニ テェー ? I know I can look it up in the internet but I just wanna know if I’m getting the japanese logic … ;)
my name is Jennifer so in Japanese coulb be... ヂェン ニ テェー ? I know I can look it up in the internet but I just wanna know if I'm getting the japanese logic ... ;)
I am not clear what exceptions can be made for combining sounds in Katakana. I saw small ィ so would that mean that any vowel can combine sounds? If I missed anything else, please let me know as well.
ありがとう