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Japanese Lesson 2: Let's Start Learning With Katakana |
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Katakana カタカナ As mentioned in the Hiragana brief introduction, Katakana is Japanese alphabets/characters that can be combined and form a Japanese word. Katakana are often used for texting foreign languages (commonly is English language) words on things, country names, places, sound and person names. Giving you four examples of using Japanese Katakana is: CARD -> ka-to (カ-ト), SINGAPORE -> shi-n-ga-po-ru (シンガポール), GEORGE -> jo-ji (ジョージ) and PINPON -> pi-n-po-n (ピンポン). Although the katakana strokes are lesser than that of Hiragana, most people often find it more difficult to learn Katakana than Hiragana.
Okay! Don't worry! Practice writing more of Japanese characters and you can master these Japanese characters in no time. Let's start learning each Japanese Katakana alphabets/characters!
| | a
| i
| u
| e | o | Sound Clip
| | ア | イ
| ウ | エ
| オ
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| | k | カ (ka) | キ (ki)
| ク (ku)
| ケ (ke) | コ (ko)
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| | s | サ (sa)
| シ (shi)
| ス (su)
| セ (se)
| ソ (so)
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| | t | タ (ta)
| チ(chi) | ツ (tsu)
| テ (te)
| ト (to)
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| | n | ナ(na)
| ニ (ni)
| ヌ (nu)
| ネ (ne)
| ノ (no)
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| | h | ハ (ha)
| ヒ (hi)
| フ (hu)
| ヘ (he)
| ホ (ho)
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| | m | マ (ma)
| ミ (mi)
| ム (mu)
| メ (me)
| モ (mo) |
| | y | ヤ (ya)
| ----- | ユ (yu)
| ----- | ヨ (yo)
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| | r | ラ (ra)
| リ (ri)
| ル (ru)
| レ (re)
| ロ (ro)
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| | w | ワ (wa) | ----- | ----- | -----
| ヲ (wo) |
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| | a | i | u | e | o | Sound Clip | | g | ガ (ga)
| ギ (gi)
| グ (gu)
| ゲ (ge)
| ゴ (go)
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| | z | ザ (za)
| ジ (ji)
| ズ (zu)
| ゼ (ze)
| ゾ (zo)
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| | d | ダ (da)
| ヂ (di)
| ヅ (du) | デ (de)
| ド (do) |
| | b | バ (ba)
| ビ (bi)
| ブ (bu)
| ベ (be)
| ボ (bo)
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| | p | パ (pa)
| ピ (pi)
| プ (pu)
| ペ (pe)
| ポ (po)
|
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| | a | u | o | Sound Clip | | ky | キャ (kya)
| キュ (kyu)
| キョ (kyo)
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| | sh | シャ(sha) | シュ (shu) | ショ (sho)
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| | ch | チャ (cha) | チュ (chu) | チョ (cho)
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| | ny | ニャ (nya)
| ニュ (nyu)
| ニョ (nyo)
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| | hy | ヒャ (hya)
| ヒュ(hyu) | ヒョ (hyo)
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| | my | ミャ (mya)
| ミュ (myu)
| ミョ (myo)
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| | ry | リャ (rya)
| リュ (ryu)
| リョ (ryo)
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| | a | u | o | Sound Clip | | gy | ギャ (gya)
| ギュ (gyu)
| ギョ (gyo)
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| | jy | ジャ (jya)
| ジュ(jyu) | ジョ (jyo)
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| | dy | ヂャ (dya) | ヂュ (dyu)
| ヂョ (dyo)
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| | by | ビャ (bya)
| ビュ (byu)
| ビョ (byo)
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| | py | ピャ (pya)
| ピュ (pyu)
| ピョ (pyo)
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| チィ (ti) | ディ (di)
| ワァ (fa)
| フォ (fo)
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If you are wondering if you need to learn all these by heart, the answer is YES you need to! These Japanese Katakana are needed in the upcoming Japanese lessons.
But of course, you may learn these Japanese Katakana along the with other Japanese lessons. 
Same goes to Hiragana~
PS: I have a super hard time learning these Japanese Katagana... and I still have not master it yet and I still need to refer to this table time and again... haha~ 
Don't Give Up On Learning Japanese!
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, and suffixes such as Mr., Mrs., Miss, Ms. - ~san さん. Hiragana is also used in words for which the kanji form is not known to the writer or readers, or is too formal for the writing purpose.