B 02Writing in Japanese:The 3 Character Sets

How do you write in Japanese?

カタカナひらがな 漢字

Index

• What is Hiragana?

• How do you write in Japanese?Why 3 character sets? Quizzes

• How about English characters?

• What is Katakana?

• What is Kanji?

• Questions

How do you write in Japanese?

To write in Japanese, we use the Japanese characters.

Hiragana

To write in English, we use the English alphabet, such as a b c d e f g h I j k …

There are THREE sets of Japanese characters.They are called:

KatakanaKanji

12

3

How do you write in Japanese?

にほん

So, you can write a word “Japan” in Japanese in three ways using each of the three character sets.

ニホン 日本in Hiragana in Katakana in Kanji

The three words look quite different, don’t they? Nevertheless, the three words are all written in Japanese and mean the same, “Japan”. Which one looks the best to you?

Why THREE Character Sets?

Sorry, that’s wrong! You need more than English alphabet (A to Z) to write in English. Think about…

0 1 2 3 4 5… These numbers are from Arabic, not English.

You might wonder “Why Japanese has three character sets when English has only one?”

+ - % =… These are your maths friends but not in A-Z.

☺ @ → ,… Useful symbols we use everyday. Not in A-Z.

So, it’s same in Japanese. The three character sets are used for different purposes, making writing and reading easier!

QuizzesHow many writing character sets are there in Japanese? 3What character sets are there in Japanese? Name them all. Hiragana

KatakanaKanji

Why are there more than one character sets are there in Japanese?

To make the writing and reading easier!

What is Hiragana?Hiragana is one of the three writing character sets of Japanese. Click to see the Hiragana set.

W R Y M H N T S K

わ ら や ま は な た さ か あ a

り み ひ に ち し き い I

ん る ゆ む ふ ぬ つ す く う u

れ め へ ね て せ け え e

を1

ろ よ も ほ の と そ こ お o

This table has ALL the 46 Hiragana characters. This table is called Hiragana chart.

So when do we use these Hiragana?

Each Hiragana character represents a syllable/sound.

What is Hiragana?Using Hiragana, you can basically spell/write everything in Japanese. Such as:

Therefore, Hiragana is the MAIN Japanese character set and FIRST to learn. In Japan, kids learn Hiragana first, too.

すし sushi

とうきょう Tokyo

まんが manga comicぼくは ごくうです。 I am

Goku.

It says うどん(udon noodles) in Hiragana

It says さくら(Sakura), name of the shop in Hiragana

What is Hiragana?Just some Hiragana trivia for you!

Hiragana strokes are curvy in general. Actually, Hiragana was mainly used by ladies when it was created!

Hiragana was created and developed during the Heian Period (794-1185).

Hiragana was created from Kanji. For example,安 (kanji) → あ (hiragana) 宇 (kanji) → う (hiragana)

Want to learn Hiragana now and start writing in Japanese? Please see the other Nihongo Recipe on Hiragana.

Hiragana characters are simple. All of them can be written in one to four strokes. Four is the maximum.

What is Katakana?Katakana is mainly used to spell “borrowed/loan” words. They are words from overseas to Japan. Click to see the Katakana chart.

This Katakana chart has ALL the 46 Katakana characters. It is exactly the same as Hiragana chart, except each of the characters looks a bit different.

W R Y M H N T S K

ワ ラ ヤ マ ハ ナ タ サ カ ア a

リ ミ ヒ ニ チ シ キ イ I

ン n ル ユ ム フ ヌ ツ ス ク ウ u

レ メ ヘ ネ テ セ ケ エ e

ヲ ロ ヨ モ ホ ノ ト ソ コ オ o

What is Katakana?Using Katakana, you can spell things form overseas to Japan. Such as:

ハンバーガー hamburger

コカコーラ coca-cola

オーストラリア Australia

カンガルー kangaroo

It says マクドナルド (McDonald’s) in Katakana

It says ハンバーガー(hamburger) in Katakana

Using Katakana, you can also spell things in overseas.

What is Katakana?Just some Katakana trivia for you!

Katakana strokes are more straight in general.

Katakana was also created and developed during the Heian Period (794-1185).

Katakana was created from Kanji. For example,江 (kanji) → エ (katakana) 多 (kanji) → タ(katakana)

Want to learn more about Katakana? Please see the other Nihongo Recipe on Katakana. Make sure you learn Hiragana first before Katakana!

Katakana literally means “parts of Kana”. Some Katakana characters are parts of their partner Hiragana.

Katakana characters are even simpler. Most of them are written in one or two strokes.

What is Kanji?Kanji is one of the three writing character sets of Japanese. Click to see some of the Kanji.

There are quite a few, aren’t there? But this is just a tiny part of the whole Kanji.

So when do we use Kanji?

What is Kanji?Using Kanji, you can write words short. Compare the number of characters in these words in Kanji and English.

All the three Kanji are one character each. So all you need is one character of Kanji to spell “mountain” in Japanese.

山 mountain

人 person

水 water

To write in a sentence, you can mix Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. See how short (less characters) this sentence is.

山の人は川の水をのむ。 The people in the mountain drink water from the river.

The sentence in Japanese has 10 characters (4 Kanji & 6 Hiragana) while the one in English has 44 characters! This is because using Kanji, you can spell words SHORT. Save your time and space with Kanji!

What is Kanji?As well as making words short, Kanji makes reading and writing visual/ pictorial, therefore easy to understand. Most of Kanji was developed from a picture. Click to see how some was developed from its picture.大 big生 life/ born

雨 rain

Quick Kanji QuizCan you guess what the following Kanji characters represent?

木tree口

mouth上up, above

火fire雪

snow魚fish

What is Kanji?Want to find more Kanji?• Kids web: quick kanjihttp://web-japan.org/kidsweb/language/quickkanji/index.html

• Kanji worldhttp://www001.upp.so-net.ne.jp/shimomura/meruhen.html

• Nihongo e-Na: Kanji learning websiteshttp://nihongo-e-na.com/jpn/hint/id332_1.html/cmid/32/

• Kanji movieshttp://study.kids.yahoo.co.jp/japanese/01/mov_01/index.html

What is Kanji?Just some Kanji trivia for you!

Japan imported Kanji from China. The word “Kanji” literally means “Chinese characters”.

A Kanji character represents a meaning and sound. For example, 手 means “hand” and reads “te”. They can have more than two meanings and sounds.

Kanji is the only modern and major pictorial characters in the world today.

There are more than 2000 Kanji characters used in Japanese! However, there are only 50 “basic” Kanji. By combining the 50 in different ways, you can make the rest of Kanji.

What is Kanji?So, here is the writing in Japanese.

ナルトは日本の忍者です。キティちゃんは日本の猫です。Naruto is a Japanese ninja. Hello Kitty is a Japanese cat.In the sentence, all the three Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji characters are used.

ナルトは日本の忍者です。キティちゃんは日本の猫です。Naruto is a Japanese ninja. Hello Kitty is a Japanese cat.After all, Japanese is a colourful language!

How about English characters?English characters are also used in Japanese writing. The common ones are:

CD, DVD, am/pm, TV, Toyota, Panasonic…

English characters are used for abbreviating, brand names, shop names and signs and more.

McDonald Japanhttp://www.mcdonalds.co.jp/ Hello Kittyhttp://www.hellokitty.ne.jp/ Doraemonhttp://dora-world.com/index.html

How about English characters?English characters are also used to help people read Japanese if they don’t read it. This English characters are called Roma-ji.

QuestionsIs it Hiragana, Katakana or Kanji?

With which one you can write/ spell everything therefore is to be learnt first? Hiragana

Which one do you use to spell words from overseas (borrowed/ loan words)? Katakana

Which is a set of 46 and each character represents a syllable/ sound? List two.

Hiragana & Katakana

Which one was developed from pictures therefore each of the character has a meaning?

Kanji

Sometimes English characters are used to help people read Japanese. What’s it’s called? Roma-ji