8/1/2023 0 Comments Spell linein kanji![]() ![]() This is because Japanese only has 71 distinct syllables available to create words from, and thus ends up with a lot of homophones. Our sample sentence from the hiragana and katakana sections, actually looks like this when written out with kanji (in other words, the “proper” way):Įven though you could technically read and write entirely in hiragana, many words and phrases are written in kanji, instead. So, while you may know how to spell a word such as “bridge” in hiragana (はし, hashi), it may often be depicted as the single character 橋, which is still pronounced the same way. Kanji (漢字/かんじ) is the arrangement of logograms borrowed from Chinese, which are written characters that represent a word or phrase. Note that the sentence above wouldn’t be written in katakana! We simply used it to illustrate the sounds of the syllabary. Each character, though visually different from hiragana, covers the same set of syllables. ![]() Its usage is for loan words from other languages, onomatopoeia and scientific or technical terms. Katakana (片仮名/かたかな) means “fragmentary” kana. These characters can also show up as bits that get tacked onto kanji to serve a grammatical purpose (like indicating what tense a verb is in). Each character represents either a vowel, a consonant followed by a vowel or the only standalone consonant in the language, ん, which sounds akin to “n.” It’s used for native Japanese words and particles. Hiragana (平仮名/ひらがな) means “simple” or “ordinary” kana. Then why have two? The reason is that each syllabary handles different kinds of words. Hiragana and katakana both generate the same syllables for the most part, but have different characters for doing so. By contrast, in Japanese there’s no individual letter “g,” but rather a single character ご that represents the syllable “go.” This is different from our alphabet, which is comprised of individual letters that can then be used in combination to create syllables.įor example, if I want to write out the sound for “go” in the English alphabet, I use two letters to create a single syllable. A syllabary is a written symbol that represents the syllables that make up words. Kana comes in two forms, hiragana and katakana, and they function as the syllabaries. Later in this post, we’ll provide tips and resources to master these characters. To begin, we’ll cover what they are and their functions. But Japanese essentially has two syllabaries to draw from, two sets of numbers, an alphabet and a mountain of logograms. ![]() In English, we have our alphabet containing both upper and lower case letters, as well as numbers. One of the reasons Japanese reading is so tricky is that there are several distinct systems all being utilized in unison. The Writing Systems You’ll Need to Learn to Read in Japanese Even if you intend to primarily learn spoken Japanese, knowing kanji in particular will grant extra insight into the etymology, history and meaning of Japanese words. Reading will also deepen your understanding of the language and culture as a whole. Without the ability to read the characters, you may end up in some hot water because you couldn’t differentiate 女 (おんな, onna) - woman from 男 (おとこ, otoko) - man and walked into the wrong side of a public bath. Especially outside of the major cities, train stations, roads, signs, menus and even toilets will all be labeled in Japanese. You’ll also need reading skills to navigate the country. So you need reading skills to get all those ドン (どん, ban) - bang, ガガガ (ががが, gagaga) - dash and スウー・フー (すうー・ふー, suuu / fuuu) - breathe in and out effects. With manga in particular, even English-translated ones often retain Japanese writing for sound effects. If you want to text Japanese-speaking friends, study or work in Japan or relax with a Japanese book, reading the language obviously becomes a requirement. (Download) Why You Shouldn’t Put Off Learning Japanese Reading This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that youĬlick here to get a copy. Immerse Yourself in Japanese Texts to Pick Up Kanji
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