Japanese Language Guide for Beginner - Lesson 01

Japanese Language Guide for Beginner - Lesson 01,  A completely free Japanese language guide is most suitable for self-study learners. 

Japanese Alphabet

The Japanese alphabet is made up of three writing systems that work together. Those are,

    1. Hiragana

    2. Katakana 

    3. Kanji

Hiragana and katakana are two different ways to write the same set of 46 sounds. Usually, we write native Japanese words using hiragana, while katakana is used for words borrowed from other languages.

So, for example, 

    • みず(mizu) - Water - Using Hiragana since it is Japan word

    • ペン (pen) - Pen - Using Katakana since it’s an English word

Hiragana

Hiragana helps us to learn the basics of pronunciation in Japanese and start to understand the building blocks of the language.

Hiragana characters represent the 46 primary sounds used in Japanese and are usually used to write words that are originally Japanese. 

There are Five vowels in Japanese.

a (ah), i (ee), u (oo), e (eh), o (oh)

Initial letters are combined with vowels to form connected letters.

As a examples:

にほん (nihon) - Japan

きゅう(kyuu) - Nine

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And for combinations, we use smaller versions of the y-vowels ya (や), yu (ゆ), and yo (よ) to make new sounds, like sha (しゃ), chu (ちゅ), nyu (にゅ), and gyo (ぎょ). So spelling out gyoza in hiragana is actually a great example of both modifications and combinations in action – ぎょうざ. Also, By adding Maru(°) and Tenten(") to some of these letters, the pronunciation is changed. 

Katakana

The katakana character set covers the same sounds as hiragana. Some of the characters even look a bit similar. Also, There are 46 initial letters in the Katakana alphabet. Adding maru(°) and thenten(``) also changes this pronunciation.

We use katakana When you want to write a word in another language in Japanese or to write broken words in English.

Example: シャンパン (shanpan) - champagne

Katakana Alphabet - 

Kanji characters

Kanji characters are characters that came from the Chinese to the Japanese language. Thousands of these kanji characters are found in the Japanese language. Words written in hiragana can be written with these kanji characters.

Kanji isn’t always characters you put together to make sounds and words. A single kanji can be one word.

Examples:   日本 - nihon (Japan)

水 - mizu (Water)

九 - kyuu (Nine)

雨 - ame (Rain)

Lesson by - 

Sathsara Gamage

Japanese Language Coach