Try the Quiz : ANIMALS II (DŌBUTSU II)

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Usage of Japanese Scripts

• There are 3 Japanese scripts : Hiragana, Katakana & Kanji. Mostof the Japanese sentences are written in Hiragana, Katakana & Kanji, all three.
• Hiragana is used for the endings of verbs and for grammatical particles.
• Katakanais used for transcription of words borrowed from foreign languages(except Chinese), like country names, personal names, etc.
• Both Hiragana and Katakana letters are a phonetic representation of sound, representing exactly the same set of sounds.
• Kanji, which is a set of Chinese characters called sinograms, is used for the nouns and the radicals of verbs.
• The Hiragana script has a Kanji equivalent (excepts the endings of verbs and the particles).
• The Katakana script does not have a Kanji equivalent.
• Whereas Hiragana and Katakana are phonetic representations of sound, Kanji conveys sounds as well as meanings.
• A sentence in Japanese can be written in Hiragana and Katakana only (without Kanji).
• Romaji (Roman letters) is simply the transliteration of  Japanese in the Latin script. It is sometimes used for the convenience of foreigners, mostly on sign-boards and at stations.
• The Romaji vowelsā, ī, ū, ē signify emphasis, and hence are also written asaa, ii, uu et ee. ex. īe = iie
• The vowel ō becomes ou and not oo ex. gakkō = gakkou
• In Katakana, the emphasis on the vowel signifies a long sound written as ー. ex. nōto (notebook), will be written in katakana as : ノート

Example. The sentence 'There are Kangaroos in this park' is written in :

Japanese Romaji : Kono kōen ni kangarū ga imasu ;

Japanese traditional (Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji) :  この公園にカンガルーがいます。; where
Kanji = 公園 (kōen = park) ; Katakana = カンガルー( kangarū = kangaroo) and the rest is Hiragana.

Japanese Hiragana and Katakana (without Kanji) : このこうえんにカンガルーがいます。
Note - The Kanji in the sentence written in Japanese traditional, 公園 is replaced by its hiragana equivalent こうえん (kōen).

Romaji Vocabulary  Hiragana Vocabulary   Katakana Vocabulary  Kanji Vocabulary  

Hiragana Alphabets   Katakana Alphabets   Kanji Characters Tables