B 02 Writing in Japanese: The 3 Character Sets How do you write in Japanese?

Index What is Hiragana? How do you write in Japanese?  Why 3 character sets?  Quizzes How about English characters? What is Katakana? What is Katakana? What is Kanji? What is Kanji? Questions

How do you write in Japanese? To write in Japanese, we use the Japanese characters. 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:

How do you write in Japanese? So, you can write a word “Japan” in Japanese in three ways using each of the three character sets. 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… You might wonder “Why Japanese has three character sets when English has only one?” So, it’s same in Japanese. The three character sets are used for different purposes, making writing and reading easier!

Quizzes

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

What is Hiragana? Just some Hiragana trivia for you!

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. WRYMHNTSK ワラヤマハナタサカア a リミヒニチシキイ I ンn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: Using Katakana, you can also spell things in overseas.

What is Katakana? Just some Katakana trivia for you!

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. To write in a sentence, you can mix Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. See how short (less characters) this sentence is. 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 Quiz Can 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 kanji Kanji world Nihongo e-Na: Kanji learning websites Kanji movies

What is Kanji? Just some Kanji trivia for you!

What is Kanji? So, here is the writing in Japanese. In the sentence, all the three Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji characters are used. After all, Japanese is a colourful language!

How about English characters? English characters are also used in Japanese writing. The common ones are: English characters are used for abbreviating, brand names, shop names and signs and more.

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.

Questions Is it Hiragana, Katakana or Kanji?