Memorizing the Katakana/Print version

Memorizing the Katakana

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Tough

The difference between shi and tsu is in their stroke direction.

Several katakana look similar and may cause confusion. These are:

シ and ン

シ and ン can be thought of as smiley faces looking towards the right. The character with both eyes is a shi (she), while the character with one eye has a nice eyepatch. The short strokes on the top slant towards the right, while the same strokes for ツ and ソ slant downwards.

ツ and ソ

ツ and ソ can be thought of as rating systems for waves at a beach. The short lines represent the rating (or people on the beach) and the long line is the coast. A rating of 2 short stokes means tsunami, and two people are running away. A rating of 1 short stroke means soft or so-so waves, with a single person relaxing on the beach.

ウ and ワ

ウ, the umbrella, has a ferrule on its top while ワ, the flipped over wagon, does not.

ヲ and ヨ

ヲ, the (World Wor Won), is rounded like a hand-written 3. ヨ, the gangster YO! is angular and has a small line extending on the bottom.

ケ and ク

In ケ, the cane (ke), the second stroke (representing the arm) extends over the cane. In ク, the cup (ku) handle is smooth.

Dakuten

Dakuten ( ﾞ ) and Handakuten ( ﾟ ) are marks placed after certain katakana that modify the way the consonant is pronounced. These marks indicate that the consonant of the syllable should be voiced.

normal	with dakuten ( ﾞ )	with handakuten ( ﾟ )
カ = ka	ガ = ga
サ = sa	ザ = za
タ = ta	ダ = da
ハ = ha	バ = ba	パ = pa

Exceptions

"Shi" (シ) turns into "Ji" (ジ)
"Chi" (チ) also turns into "Ji" (ヂ)
"Tsu" (ツ) turns into "Zu" (ヅ)
"U" (ウ) turns into "Vu" (ヴ)

Sokuon

Sokuon (ッ) is a symbol consisting of a small Tsu (compare with normal Tsu: ツッ). It is used to insert a slight pause.

Chōonpu

Chōonpu (ー) is a symbol used to indicate a long vowel sound. Long vowels can also be written by using the corresponding vowel katakana.

normal	with chōonpu ( ー )	is the same as
プ = pu	プー = puu	プウ = puu

Easy quiz

Note

1. All questions are to be answered using the English equivalent of the katakana (e.g. ha, ru, shi etc.)
2. Please answer using only lowercase letters

Peek at Vowel answers
anchor i umbrella elephant origin on graph

1 identify the following vowel katakana:

エ:

オ :

イ :

ア :

ウ :

Peek at k_ answers
kat ki (key) kup (cup) handle keyn (cane) korner

2 identify the following k_ katakana:

コ :

ケ :

キ :

カ :

ク :

Peek at s_ answers
samba/salsa dance shi is shy support beam sepukku suicide soft/so-so waves

3 identify the following s_ katakana:

サ :

シ :

ス :

ソ :

セ :

Peek at t_ answers
tarantula chiter (cheater) tsunami teyble (table) toe

4 identify the following t_ katakana:

チ :

テ :

タ :

ツ :

ト :

Peek at n_ answers
nail ni (knee) nu (new) way to write 7 necktie no smoking nice eyepatch, no-eye

5 identify the following n_ katakana:

ノ :

ネ :

ン :

ナ :

ニ :

ヌ :

Peek at h_ answers
half a stick hill (heel) of a sock full (fool) hat heaven holy cross

6 identify the following h_ katakana:

ホ :

ヘ :

フ :

ヒ :

ハ :

Peek at m_ answers
ma-ma lets me have a cookie do re mi music composer medical syringe & medicine more worms

7 identify the following m_ katakana:

メ :

ム :

マ :

モ :

ミ :

Peek at y_ answers
yak yu (U) on its side yo! gangster

8 identify the following y_ katakana:

ユ :

ヤ :

ヨ :

Peek at r_ answers
Ra, Egyptian sun god river reed rut (root) of a tree reyn (rain) falls down squares don't roll

9 identify the following r_ katakana:

ラ :

リ :

ル :

レ :

ロ :

Peek at w_ answers
wagon world wor won

10 identify the following w_ katakana:

ヲ :

ワ :

Click submit to see your results.

Hard quiz

Note

1. All questions are to be answered using the English equivalent of the katakana (e.g. shi, zu, ji etc.)
2. Please answer using only lowercase letters

1 Identify the following katakana (10/71):

グ :

ト :

テ :

ロ :

エ :

セ :

ギ :

ソ :

デ :

ニ :

2 Identify the following katakana (20/71):

ホ :

ゾ :

ズ :

ム :

コ :

ザ :

ジ :

ゲ :

ン :

ボ :

3 Identify the following katakana (30/71):

ス :

ラ :

ク :

プ :

ヂ :

タ :

シ :

パ :

ヘ :

オ :

4 Identify the following katakana (40/71):

ア :

メ :

ド :

デ :

ペ :

ポ :

ヅ :

カ :

イ :

モ :

5 Identify the following katakana (50/71):

ワ :

ヲ :

ウ :

ノ :

ヒ :

ベ :

ユ :

ヌ :

ブ :

ネ :

6 Identify the following katakana (60/71):

ミ :

リ :

ツ :

ヤ :

バ :

チ :

レ :

キ :

ナ :

ハ :

7 Identify the following katakana (71/71):

フ :

ケ :

ビ :

サ :

ヨ :

ゼ :

ル :

ガ :

ピ :

ダ :

マ :

Click submit to see your results.