{"id":107032,"date":"2023-07-05T16:46:15","date_gmt":"2023-07-05T20:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/learn\/katakana-words\/"},"modified":"2025-01-28T05:33:42","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T10:33:42","slug":"katakana-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/japanese\/katakana-words\/","title":{"rendered":"200+ Katakana Words: Your Introduction to Japanese Loanwords"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a nutshell, katakana uses characters to represent syllables (instead of single letters like an alphabet) and it’s used primarily for re-imagining foreign words in the Japanese language.<\/p>\n

Below, I\u2019ve put together a guide on everything you need to know about katakana.<\/p>\n

[fluentu-toc skip=3]<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What Is Katakana?<\/h2>\n

As I’ve mentioned, \u7247\u4eee\u540d (\u304b\u305f\u304b\u306a) \u2014 katakana is a Japanese writing system<\/a> used to transcribe foreign words, sound effects, titles and loan words into Japanese words.<\/p>\n

Think of it this way: To read Japanese words, you might have used \u30ed\u30fc\u30de\u5b57 (\u308d\u30fc\u307e\u3058) \u2014 r\u014dmaji, or Latin-based script that shows you how to sound out each syllable with letters familiar to you. (“R\u014dmaji” is an example of r\u014dmaji!)<\/p>\n

Japanese speakers use the same concept with foreign words. Just as English speakers use r\u014dmaji, Japanese speakers use katakana.<\/p>\n

Katakana is syllable-based,<\/strong> meaning each character in its “alphabet” represents a particular syllable or sound. Those syllables are put together to sound out foreign words in a way Japanese speakers can pronounce and understand.<\/p>\n

Katakana is mainly used for writing loanwords<\/a> or \u5916\u6765\u8a9e (\u304c\u3044\u3089\u3044 \u3054) \u2014 <\/strong>gairaigo,<\/strong> <\/em>words from other languages that become part of the Japanese language. (This happens in English, too: for example, “karaoke” is a Japanese loanword that’s now part of the English vocabulary.)<\/p>\n

So why bother learning katakana if it’s just a bunch of foreign (often English) words rewritten for Japanese readers?<\/p>\n

Well, katakana is just as important as \u6f22\u5b57\u00a0(\u304b\u3093\u3058) \u2014 kanji and \u5e73\u4eee\u540d\u00a0(\u3072\u3089\u304c\u306a) \u2014 hiragana<\/a>. It’s used frequently, especially with Western concepts, modern technologies and internet communication<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Therefore, if you want to really take your fluency to the next level, you’ll need to get a grasp on katakana syllables and common words<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meet the Syllabary: List of Katakana Characters<\/h2>\n

There are 46 katakana characters, some of which can be combined to form even more sounds.<\/p>\n

Below is a basic katakana chart with hiragana and r\u014dmaji pronunciations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To figure out how to read each word, check what row of vowels and what column of consonants they fall under. For example, since \u30ab is under the consonant “k” and on the row “a,” it’s pronounced\u00a0ka.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Note that Japanese syllabary tables (and Japanese texts in general) are traditionally designed to be read from right to left. However, I’ve arranged the table below from left to right since that’s how English speakers normally read a text. You can get comfortable with reading from right to left as you advance in your Japanese studies<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
<\/td><\/td>k<\/th>s<\/th>t<\/th>n<\/th>h<\/th>m<\/th>l\/r****<\/th>w<\/th>y<\/th>n\/m*****<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
a<\/strong><\/td>\u30a2 (\u3042)<\/td>\u30ab (\u304b)<\/td>\u30b5 (\u3055)<\/td>\u30bf (\u305f)<\/td>\u30ca (\u306a)<\/td>\u30cf (\u306f)<\/td>\u30de (\u307e)<\/td>\u30e9 (\u3089)<\/td>\u30ef (\u308f)<\/td>\u30e4 (\u3084)<\/td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
i<\/strong><\/td>\u30a4 (\u3044)<\/td>\u30ad (\u304d)<\/td>\u30b7 (\u3057) - shi<\/td>\u30c1 (\u3061) chi*<\/td>\u30cb (\u306b)<\/td>\u30d2 (\u3072)<\/td>\u30df (\u307f)<\/td>\u30ea (\u308a)<\/td><\/td><\/td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
u<\/strong><\/td>\u30a6 (\u3046)<\/td>\u30af (\u304f)<\/td>\u30b9 (\u3059)<\/td>\u30c4 (\u3064) tsu**<\/td>\u30cc (\u306c)<\/td>\u30d5 (\u3075) fu***<\/td>\u30e0 (\u3080)<\/td>\u30eb (\u308b)<\/td><\/td>\u30e6 (\u3086)<\/td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
e<\/strong><\/td>\u30a8 (\u3048)<\/td>\u30b1 (\u3051)<\/td>\u30bb (\u305b)<\/td>\u30c6 (\u3066)<\/td>\u30cd (\u306d)<\/td>\u30d8 (\u3078)<\/td>\u30e1 (\u3081)<\/td>\u30ec (\u308c)<\/td><\/td><\/td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
o<\/strong><\/td>\u30aa (\u304a)<\/td>\u30b3 (\u3053)<\/td>\u30bd (\u305d)<\/td>\u30c8 (\u3068)<\/td>\u30ce (\u306e)<\/td>\u30db (\u307b)<\/td>\u30e2 (\u3082)<\/td>\u30ed (\u308d)<\/td>\u30f2 (\u3092)<\/td>\u30e8 (\u3088)<\/td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td><\/td><\/td><\/td><\/td><\/td><\/td><\/td><\/td><\/td><\/td>\u30f3 (\u3093)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

*Chi\u00a0<\/em>can be used with the “ti” sound, such as in “team” or chimu<\/em> (\u30c1\u30fc\u30e0<\/strong> or \u3061\u30fc\u3080), or the “chi” sound, as in “chicken” or chikin<\/em> (\u30c1\u30ad\u30f3<\/strong> or \u3061\u304d\u3093).<\/p>\n

**Tsu\u00a0<\/em>can be used for any syllable with the “tu” sound, like “tool” or ts\u016bru<\/em> (\u30c4\u30fc\u30eb<\/strong> or \u3064\u30fc\u308b).<\/p>\n

***Fu<\/em>\u00a0is the only\u00a0f<\/em> sound in Japanese and can be interchanged with hu<\/em>. Syllables like fa, fi<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0fo<\/em> don\u2019t exist, so when you need to make a word like \u201cfamily\u201d with katakana, you need to use additional vowel characters: \u30d5\u30a1\u30df\u30ea\u30fc<\/strong> (Family) becomes, essentially,\u00a0fu-ah-mi-ri<\/em>, for instance.<\/p>\n

****Japanese doesn’t have an “l” sound, so it uses “r” for loanwords that have the “l” sound in the original language. For example, “really” would be riarii<\/em> (\u30ea\u30a2\u30ea\u30fc<\/strong>\u00a0or \u308a\u3042\u308a\u30fc).<\/p>\n

*****\u30f3 (\u3093) is the only character used at the\u00a0end<\/em> of a syllable rather than the beginning.<\/p>\n

Here are a few more katakana syllables, which are essentially derivatives of some of the characters shown above. Like in hiragana, adding diacritics to certain characters changes their pronunciation. The diacritics are called\u00a0dakuten<\/em> (\u309b) and\u00a0handakuten<\/em> (\u309c ).<\/strong><\/p>\n

To illustrate, the “k” sound would become “g,” the “s” would become “z” and so on when diacritics are added. Some syllables use both dakuten<\/em> and handakuten<\/em>: for example, \u30cf (\u306f or ha) can become \u30d0 (\u3070 or ba) or \u00a0\u30d1 (\u3071 or pa).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
<\/td>g<\/th>z<\/th>d<\/th>b<\/th>p<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
a<\/strong><\/td>\u30ac (\u304c)<\/td>\u30b6 (\u3056)<\/td>\u30c0 (\u3060)<\/td>\u30d0 (\u3070)<\/td>\u30d1 (\u3071)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
i<\/strong><\/td>\u30ae (\u304e)<\/td>\u30b8 (\u3058)<\/td>\u30c2 (\u3062)<\/td>\u30d3 (\u3073)<\/td>\u30d4 (\u3074)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
u<\/strong><\/td>\u30b0 (\u3050)<\/td>\u30ba (\u305a)<\/td>\u30c5 (\u3065)<\/td>\u30d6 (\u3076)<\/td>\u30d7 (\u3077)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
e<\/strong><\/td>\u30b2 (\u3052)<\/td>\u30bc (\u305c)<\/td>\u30c7 (\u3067)<\/td>\u30d9 (\u3079)<\/td>\u30da (\u307a)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
o<\/strong><\/td>\u30b4 (\u3054) <\/td>\u30be (\u305e)<\/td>\u30c9 (\u3069)<\/td>\u30dc (\u307c)<\/td>\u30dd (\u307d)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

Forming Katakana Words<\/h2>\n

There are many ways to form katakana words. You can:<\/p>\n