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Memorizing the Katakana

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The Vowels

ア is an anchor.






イ looks like an i but the top dot is stretched.






ウ is an umbrella.






エ is a baby elephant.






オ is the origin in a Cartesian coordinate graph.






Memorizing the Katakana
The Vowels The K line


The K line

カ is a kat (cat).






キ is a ki (key).






ク is a kup (cup) handle.






ケ is a keyn (cane).






コ has two korners (corners).






Memorizing the Katakana
The Vowels The K line The S line


The S line

サ is a pair dancing the samba or salsa.






シ is best remembered as a woman's smiling face looking right. Shi (she) looks away when Shi smiles because Shi is shy.






ス is a seven with a support beam.






セ is a fellow committing seppuku.






ソ is a person enjoying the soft or so-so waves at a beach. This will make more sense later when we learn the tsu katakana.






Memorizing the Katakana
The K line The S line The T line


The T line

タ is a tarantula.






チ is a chiter (cheater) who wrote the answers on his hand while taking a test.






ツ is two people running away from the shoreline: a tsunami is coming! Compare with the katakana for So.






テ is a teyble (table) with a dish on it.






ト is the toes of a foot.






Memorizing the Katakana
The S line The T line The N line


The N line

ナ is a nail.






ニ is the folds of skin on your ni (knee).






ヌ Is the nu way of writing the number 7. The old way is plain, the new way crosses the middle (7 and 7).






ネ is a happy businessman in a necktie.






ノ is the universal no smoking sign.






ン Remember she (シ) from before? Now, she's only got one eye. N...ice eyepatch!






Memorizing the Katakana
The T line The N line The H line


The H line

ハ is a stick broken in half.






ヒ is a sock's hill (heel).






フ is a fellow wearing a full's (fool's) hat. A dunce.






ヘ is an arrow pointing to heaven.






ホ is a holy symbol, the crucifix.






Memorizing the Katakana
The N line The H line The M line


The M line

Ma-ma says I can have a cookie.






ミ is a staff with the music notes DO RE and MI.






ム is a composer writing music.






メ is a medical syringe with medicine in it.






モ You'll catch more fish with more worms on the hook.






Memorizing the Katakana
The H line The M line The Y line


The Y line

ヤ is a Yak.






ユ is the letter yu (U) on its side.






ヨ is gangster making hand signs and saying yo!






Memorizing the Katakana
The M line The Y line The R line


The R line

ラ is an Ancient Egyptian bowing to Ra, the sun god.






リ is a rid (reed) in a river.






ル is a tree rut (root).






レ is an arrow that shows us which direction reyn (rain) falls; down.






口 reminds us that squares don't roll.






Memorizing the Katakana
The Y line The R line The W line


The W line

ワ is a wagon, flipped over and partially broken.






ヲ looks like both a 3 or a W flipped onto its side. This of course reminds us of that triply-alliterative conflict near the beginning of the 20th century: World Wor (war) Won (one).






Memorizing the Katakana
The Y line The W line Tough characters


Tough

The difference between shi and tsu is in their stroke direction.

Several katakana look similar and may cause confusion. These are:

シ and ン

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and can be thought of as smiley faces looking towards the right. The character with both eyes is a shi (she), while the character with one eye has a nice eyepatch. The short strokes on the top slant towards the right, while the same strokes for and slant downwards.


ツ and ソ

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and can be thought of as rating systems for waves at a beach. The short lines represent the rating (or people on the beach) and the long line is the coast. A rating of 2 short stokes means tsunami, and two people are running away. A rating of 1 short stroke means soft or so-so waves, with a single person relaxing on the beach.

ウ and ワ

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, the umbrella, has a ferrule on its top while , the flipped over wagon, does not.

ヲ and ヨ

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, the (World Wor Won), is rounded like a hand-written 3. , the gangster YO! is angular and has a small line extending on the bottom.

ケ and ク

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In , the cane (ke), the second stroke (representing the arm) extends over the cane. In , the cup (ku) handle is smooth.


Memorizing the Katakana
The W line Tough Characters Dakuten


Dakuten

Dakuten ( ゙ ) and Handakuten ( ゚ ) are marks placed after certain katakana that modify the way the consonant is pronounced. These marks indicate that the consonant of the syllable should be voiced.

normal with dakuten ( ゙ ) with handakuten ( ゚ )
カ = ka ガ = ga
サ = sa ザ = za
タ = ta ダ = da
ハ = ha バ = ba パ = pa
Exceptions
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"Shi" (シ) turns into "Ji" (ジ)
"Chi" (チ) also turns into "Ji" (ヂ)
"Tsu" (ツ) turns into "Zu" (ヅ)
"U" (ウ) turns into "Vu" (ヴ)

Sokuon

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Sokuon (ッ) is a symbol consisting of a small Tsu (compare with normal Tsu: ツッ). It is used to insert a slight pause.


Chōonpu

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Chōonpu (ー) is a symbol used to indicate a long vowel sound. Long vowels can also be written by using the corresponding vowel katakana.

normal with chōonpu ( ー ) is the same as
プ = pu プー = puu プウ = puu


Memorizing the Katakana
Tough characters Dakuten Easy quiz


Easy quiz

Note


  1. All questions are to be answered using the English equivalent of the katakana (e.g. ha, ru, shi etc.)
  2. Please answer using only lowercase letters



1 identify the following vowel katakana:

  1. エ:

  2. オ :

  3. イ :

  4. ア :

  5. ウ :


  6. 2 identify the following k_ katakana:

    1. コ :

    2. ケ :

    3. キ :

    4. カ :

    5. ク :


    6. 3 identify the following s_ katakana:

      1. サ :

      2. シ :

      3. ス :

      4. ソ :

      5. セ :


      6. 4 identify the following t_ katakana:

        1. チ :

        2. テ :

        3. タ :

        4. ツ :

        5. ト :


        6. 5 identify the following n_ katakana:

          1. ノ :

          2. ネ :

          3. ン :

          4. ナ :

          5. ニ :

          6. ヌ :


          7. 6 identify the following h_ katakana:

            1. ホ :

            2. ヘ :

            3. フ :

            4. ヒ :

            5. ハ :


            6. 7 identify the following m_ katakana:

              1. メ :

              2. ム :

              3. マ :

              4. モ :

              5. ミ :


              6. 8 identify the following y_ katakana:

                1. ユ :

                2. ヤ :

                3. ヨ :


                4. 9 identify the following r_ katakana:

                  1. ラ :

                  2. リ :

                  3. ル :

                  4. レ :

                  5. ロ :


                  6. 10 identify the following w_ katakana:

                    1. ヲ :

                    2. ワ :

                    3. Click submit to see your results.


                      Memorizing the Katakana
                      Dakuten Easy quiz Hard quiz


                      Hard quiz

                      Note


                      1. All questions are to be answered using the English equivalent of the katakana (e.g. shi, zu, ji etc.)
                      2. Please answer using only lowercase letters


                      1 Identify the following katakana (10/71):

                      1. グ :

                      2. ト :

                      3. テ :

                      4. ロ :

                      5. エ :

                      6. セ :

                      7. ギ :

                      8. ソ :

                      9. デ :

                      10. ニ :

                      11. 2 Identify the following katakana (20/71):

                        1. ホ :

                        2. ゾ :

                        3. ズ :

                        4. ム :

                        5. コ :

                        6. ザ :

                        7. ジ :

                        8. ゲ :

                        9. ン :

                        10. ボ :

                        11. 3 Identify the following katakana (30/71):

                          1. ス :

                          2. ラ :

                          3. ク :

                          4. プ :

                          5. ヂ :

                          6. タ :

                          7. シ :

                          8. パ :

                          9. ヘ :

                          10. オ :

                          11. 4 Identify the following katakana (40/71):

                            1. ア :

                            2. メ :

                            3. ド :

                            4. デ :

                            5. ペ :

                            6. ポ :

                            7. ヅ :

                            8. カ :

                            9. イ :

                            10. モ :

                            11. 5 Identify the following katakana (50/71):

                              1. ワ :

                              2. ヲ :

                              3. ウ :

                              4. ノ :

                              5. ヒ :

                              6. ベ :

                              7. ユ :

                              8. ヌ :

                              9. ブ :

                              10. ネ :

                              11. 6 Identify the following katakana (60/71):

                                1. ミ :

                                2. リ :

                                3. ツ :

                                4. ヤ :

                                5. バ :

                                6. チ :

                                7. レ :

                                8. キ :

                                9. ナ :

                                10. ハ :

                                11. 7 Identify the following katakana (71/71):

                                  1. フ :

                                  2. ケ :

                                  3. ビ :

                                  4. サ :

                                  5. ヨ :

                                  6. ゼ :

                                  7. ル :

                                  8. ガ :

                                  9. ピ :

                                  10. ダ :

                                  11. マ :

                                  12. Click submit to see your results.



                                    Memorizing the Katakana
                                    Easy quiz Hard quiz