Complete Guide to Japanese Letters: Understanding Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji

2025/06/24

The Japanese writing system is one of the most complex in the world, combining three distinct scripts: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. For learners beginning their journey with Japanese, understanding these different letter systems is essential for reading, writing, and comprehending the language effectively.

This comprehensive guide will walk you through each writing system, providing complete character lists and practical usage examples.

Types of Japanese Letters

The modern Japanese writing system uses a combination of logographic kanji, which are adopted Chinese characters, and syllabic kana.

Kana itself consists of a pair of syllabaries: hiragana, used primarily for native or naturalized Japanese words and grammatical elements; and katakana, used primarily for foreign words and names, loanwords, onomatopoeia, scientific names, and sometimes for emphasis.

Hiragana (ひらがな) represents the foundational phonetic script of Japanese. Hiragana characters represent the 46 primary sounds used in Japanese. Each character represents a complete syllable sound rather than individual letters like in English. This script is typically learned first by both Japanese children and foreign language learners.

Katakana (カタカナ) covers the same sounds as hiragana but serves completely different purposes. Katakana represents the same sounds as hiragana but serves completely different purposes. It appears more angular and geometric compared to hiragana’s flowing curves.

Kanji (漢字) consists of Chinese-derived characters that represent meanings and concepts rather than sounds. Japanese primary and secondary school students are required to learn 2,136 jōyō kanji as of 2010. The total number of kanji is well over 50,000. These characters form the backbone of written Japanese content.

Hiragana Character List

Hiragana developed from man’yōgana, Chinese characters used for their pronunciations, a practice that started in the 5th century. The following table presents all 46 basic hiragana characters organized by their sound patterns.

Basic Hiragana Characters

Character	Romanization	Character	Romanization	Character	Romanization	Character	Romanization	Character	Romanization
あ	a	い	i	う	u	え	e	お	o
か	ka	き	ki	く	ku	け	ke	こ	ko
が	ga	ぎ	gi	ぐ	gu	げ	ge	ご	go
さ	sa	し	shi	す	su	せ	se	そ	so
ざ	za	じ	ji	ず	zu	ぜ	ze	ぞ	zo
た	ta	ち	chi	つ	tsu	て	te	と	to
だ	da	ぢ	ji	づ	zu	で	de	ど	do
な	na	に	ni	ぬ	nu	ね	ne	の	no
は	ha	ひ	hi	ふ	fu	へ	he	ほ	ho
ば	ba	び	bi	ぶ	bu	べ	be	ぼ	bo
ぱ	pa	ぴ	pi	ぷ	pu	ぺ	pe	ぽ	po
ま	ma	み	mi	む	mu	め	me	も	mo
や	ya	–	–	ゆ	yu	–	–	よ	yo
ら	ra	り	ri	る	ru	れ	re	ろ	ro
わ	wa	–	–	–	–	–	–	を	wo
ん	n	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–

Hiragana is used primarily for native or naturalized Japanese words and grammatical elements. Hiragana is used to write okurigana (kana suffixes following a kanji root, for example to inflect verbs and adjectives), various grammatical and function words including particles, and miscellaneous other native words for which there are no kanji or whose kanji form is obscure or too formal for the writing purpose.

Hiragana Usage Examples

Hiragana appears frequently in everyday Japanese writing for grammatical particles like は (wa), を (wo), に (ni), and が (ga). It also forms verb endings such as in 食べます (tabemasu – “to eat”) and adjective inflections like 大きい (ookii – “big”). Children’s books often use hiragana exclusively or predominantly, making it essential for beginning readers.

Katakana Character List

Katakana evolved from Japanese Buddhist monks transliterating Chinese texts into Japanese. The complete katakana script consists of 48 characters, not counting functional and diacritic marks.

Basic Katakana Characters

Character	Romanization	Character	Romanization	Character	Romanization	Character	Romanization	Character	Romanization
ア	a	イ	i	ウ	u	エ	e	オ	o
カ	ka	キ	ki	ク	ku	ケ	ke	コ	ko
ガ	ga	ギ	gi	グ	gu	ゲ	ge	ゴ	go
サ	sa	シ	shi	ス	su	セ	se	ソ	so
ザ	za	ジ	ji	ズ	zu	ゼ	ze	ゾ	zo
タ	ta	チ	chi	ツ	tsu	テ	te	ト	to
ダ	da	ヂ	ji	ヅ	zu	デ	de	ド	do
ナ	na	ニ	ni	ヌ	nu	ネ	ne	ノ	no
ハ	ha	ヒ	hi	フ	fu	ヘ	he	ホ	ho
バ	ba	ビ	bi	ブ	bu	ベ	be	ボ	bo
パ	pa	ピ	pi	プ	pu	ペ	pe	ポ	po
マ	ma	ミ	mi	ム	mu	メ	me	モ	mo
ヤ	ya	–	–	ユ	yu	–	–	ヨ	yo
ラ	ra	リ	ri	ル	ru	レ	re	ロ	ro
ワ	wa	–	–	–	–	–	–	ヲ	wo
ン	n	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–

Katakana Usage Examples

Katakana is used for transcription of foreign-language words into Japanese and the writing of loan words (collectively gairaigo); for emphasis; to represent onomatopoeia; for technical and scientific terms; and for names of plants, animals, minerals and often Japanese companies.

Common examples include foreign loanwords like コーヒー (koohii – “coffee”), コンピューター (konpyuutaa – “computer”), and foreign names like アメリカ (Amerika – “America”). For example, Suzuki is written スズキ, and Toyota is written トヨタ.

Special Characters

Japanese writing employs various special characters and diacritical marks that modify pronunciation and meaning. These elements are crucial for accurate reading and writing.

Dakuten and Handakuten

The dakuten (Japanese: 濁点), colloquially ten-ten (点々, “dots”), is a diacritic most often used in the Japanese kana syllabaries to indicate that the consonant of a mora should be pronounced voiced. The handakuten, colloquially maru (丸, “circle”), is a diacritic used with kana for morae pronounced with /h/ or /f/ to indicate that they should instead be pronounced with /p/.

Dakuten (゛) – Appears as two small diagonal marks resembling quotation marks:

• か (ka) → が (ga)
• さ (sa) → ざ (za)
• た (ta) → だ (da)
• は (ha) → ば (ba)

Handakuten (゜) – Appears as a small circle:

• は (ha) → ぱ (pa)
• ひ (hi) → ぴ (pi)
• ふ (fu) → ぷ (pu)
• へ (he) → ぺ (pe)
• ほ (ho) → ぽ (po)

Long Vowel Mark

The chōonpu (long vowel mark) (ー) used in katakana is rarely used with hiragana. This horizontal line extends vowel sounds in katakana words, such as in ケーキ (keeki – “cake”) or コーヒー (koohii – “coffee”).

Japanese Punctuation Marks

Japanese punctuation includes various written marks (besides characters and numbers), which differ from those found in European languages. Punctuation was not widely used in Japanese writing until translations from European languages became common in the 19th century.

Mark	Name	Romanization	Usage
。	句点	kuten	Japanese period (full stop)
、	読点	touten	Japanese comma
？	疑問符	gimonfu	Question mark
！	感嘆符	kantanfu	Exclamation mark
「」	鉤括弧	kagikakko	Single quotation marks
『』	二重鉤括弧	nijuukagikakko	Double quotation marks
・	中黒	nakaguro	Interpunct (word separator)
〜	波ダッシュ	nami dasshu	Wave dash

The Japanese period is used much the same as the English period. It marks a full-stop, or end to a sentence. The period itself is a small circle, and not a dot.

Small Tsu

The small っ (hiragana) or ッ (katakana) represents a pause or glottal stop, effectively doubling the following consonant sound. For example, in the word がっこう (gakkou – “school”), the small っ creates a brief pause before the k sound.

Kanji

Unlike hiragana and katakana which represent sounds, kanji represent meanings and concepts. Kanji characters are used to write most content words of native Japanese or (historically) Chinese origin, which include many nouns, the stems of most verbs and adjectives, the stems of many adverbs, and most Japanese personal names and place names.

Kanji is different from hiragana and katakana in that there are multiple ways to pronounce a single character. This is because there is a Chinese way to read a character (called the on-yomi) and a Japanese way (the kun-yomi).

Common examples of basic kanji include these.

• 人 (hito/jin – “person”)
• 日 (hi/nichi – “day/sun”)
• 本 (hon/moto – “book/origin”)
• 水 (mizu/sui – “water”)
• 火 (hi/ka – “fire”)

Japanese sentences typically combine kanji with hiragana. Kanji: Provides the main meaning (nouns, verb stems, adjective stems) Hiragana: Provides grammatical elements (particles, verb endings, adjective endings).

Usage Differences Between Hiragana and Katakana

Understanding when to use hiragana versus katakana is fundamental for proper Japanese writing. Japanese has two native writing styles — hiragana and katakana. Together they’re known as kana. In other words, hiragana and katakana are two different ways to write the same thing.

When to Use Hiragana

Hiragana, which literally means “ordinary” or “simple” kana, is used primarily for native Japanese words and grammatical elements. Specific applications include these.

• Grammatical particles: は (wa), を (wo), に (ni), が (ga)
• Verb endings and inflections: 食べる (taberu – “to eat”), 行きます (ikimasu – “to go”)
• Adjective endings: 美しい (utsukushii – “beautiful”), 大きい (ookii – “big”)
• Native Japanese words: especially when kanji would be too difficult or uncommon
• Okurigana: kana suffixes that follow kanji to indicate grammatical function
• Children’s literature: books for young readers often use predominantly hiragana

When to Use Katakana

Katakana is used primarily for foreign words and names, loanwords, onomatopoeia, scientific names, and sometimes for emphasis. Common applications include these.

• Foreign loanwords: コンピューター (konpyuutaa – “computer”), レストラン (resutoran – “restaurant”)
• Foreign proper names: ジョン (Jon – “John”), ロンドン (Rondon – “London”)
• Onomatopoeia: ワンワン (wanwan – dog barking), ニャーニャー (nyaanyaa – cat meowing)
• Scientific terms: Many botanical and zoological names
• Company names: Using katakana helps distinguish company names from surnames in writing.
• Emphasis: Similar to using italics in English
• Technical terminology: Computer and technology-related terms

Contextual Usage

Almost all written Japanese sentences contain a mixture of kanji and kana. In practice, a single sentence often combines all three writing systems.

私はコンピューターを買いました。 (Watashi wa konpyuutaa wo kaimashita.) “I bought a computer.”

This sentence demonstrates the following meaning.

• 私 (kanji for “I”)
• は (hiragana particle)
• コンピューター (katakana for “computer”)
• を (hiragana particle)
• 買 (kanji for “buy”)
• いました (hiragana verb ending)

The integration of these three systems creates the rich, nuanced written communication that characterizes modern Japanese. Because of this mixture of scripts, in addition to a large inventory of kanji characters, the Japanese writing system is considered to be one of the most complicated currently in use.

For learners, mastering hiragana and katakana provides the foundation necessary to begin reading Japanese texts and understanding how these writing systems work together to express meaning, emotion, and grammatical relationships in this fascinating language.

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