Step 2 of Japanese writing
Learn katakana
Katakana (カタカナ) writes exactly the same sounds as hiragana with a second, angular set of shapes. If you already know hiragana, you know the sounds: only the shapes are new.
What katakana is used for
Katakana is the script of borrowed words and foreign names: コーヒー (kōhī, coffee), テレビ (terebi, television), パン (pan, bread). It also writes onomatopoeia, animal and plant names in science, and words a writer wants to stand out, much like italics. Menus, shop signs and product names are full of it, so it pays off fast for travellers. Your own name will be written in katakana too.
Same chart, new shapes
The gojūon grid is identical to hiragana: rows share a consonant, columns share a vowel (a, i, u, e, o). Dakuten and handakuten work the same way, and so do the small ャ, ュ, ョ combinations.
One thing is specific to katakana: long vowels are written with a bar, ー, as in ケーキ (kēki, cake). Foreign sounds that Japanese lacks get small-kana combinations, such as ティ (ti) in パーティー (pātī, party) or ファ (fa).
How to learn katakana
- Learn hiragana first. The sounds transfer directly, so katakana becomes a shape-matching exercise.
- Pair each character with its hiragana twin. Some are close (か / カ, り / リ), which gives you a head start.
- Read loanwords. Sounding out アイスクリーム and hearing "ice cream" is the most satisfying way to practise.
- Write the tricky ones. Stroke order is the only reliable way to tell the look-alikes apart.
Characters people mix up
シ and ツ
shi's two short strokes are stacked and the long stroke sweeps up from the bottom left; tsu's are side by side and the long stroke comes down from the top.
ソ and ン
Same logic: so's long stroke comes down from the top, n's rises from the bottom left.
ク, タ and ワ
ta is ku with an extra stroke inside; wa is closed at the top like a box.
コ, ユ and ロ
ro is a closed box, ko is open on the left, yu has a stroke sticking out at the bottom.
Practice with Kanapup
Learn every kana row by row, listen to native recordings, trace the stroke order with your finger and quiz yourself until each one sticks.