The Three Writing Systems of Japanese

In This Unit You Will Learn

Japanese uses three writing systems together: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. In this unit, you will distinguish the role each script plays and read how kanji and hiragana mix within a single word. You will also learn sentences written without spaces between words, horizontal and vertical writing, and the use of the punctuation marks 「、」 and 「。」.

The Roles of the Three Scripts

Japanese scripts have divided roles. Hiragana is mainly used to write native words and grammatical elements. Katakana is used to write loanwords (gairaigo), which are words borrowed from foreign languages. Kanji is used to write the stems that carry the meaning of words. The roles of the three scripts are summarized in the table below.

The native word いぬ is also written with the kanji 犬. Which script to use follows the convention fixed for each word. Particles and sentence-final expressions are all written in hiragana. However, the usage of particles and sentence-final expressions is covered from Unit 14 onward.

Scripts Mixed Within a Word and a Sentence

In many cases, kanji and hiragana are mixed even within a single word. In 食べる(たべる), 食 is the kanji that carries the meaning, and べる, written after it, is hiragana. Hiragana written after a kanji in this way is called okurigana. 大きい(おおきい) is also written with 大 as kanji and きい as hiragana. Katakana is used when the whole word is a loanword, as in テレビ(terebi).

A single Japanese sentence shows these three scripts together. Within a sentence, each word is distinguished by its kanji carrying meaning, its hiragana writing native words, or its katakana writing loanwords. When reading a whole sentence, estimate word boundaries by looking at where the script changes.

Spacing and Punctuation

Actual Japanese writing does not use spaces. Because words run together in a single line, word boundaries are identified by where the type of script changes and by punctuation marks. In the examples of this book, a space is shown between bunsetsu (phrase units) for study purposes.

There are two punctuation marks. 「、」 is a comma, used where words are listed or where speech pauses briefly. 「。」 is a full stop, used where a sentence ends. Both punctuation marks occupy one character space.