Katakana: A-gyō to Na-gyō

Learning Objectives

Be able to read the shapes and sounds of the 25 katakana characters from ア行 to ナ行. Remember each character by comparing it with its paired hiragana, and distinguish characters that look alike and are easily confused. Learn the role of the long vowel mark ー by reading loanwords.

The Shapes and Sounds of the 25 Characters

Katakana is the script mainly used to write loanwords and foreign personal and place names. The table below summarizes each row's katakana, paired hiragana, and romanization. The name of each row is determined by its first character.

The ア行 characters represent only vowels, without a consonant. The other four rows are sounds that combine a consonant and a vowel. However, シ in サ行 is read shi, チ in タ行 is read chi, and ツ is read tsu. These three characters do not follow the row pattern (sa-shi-su, ta-chi-tsu), so they must be memorized separately.

Matching with Hiragana

Katakana and hiragana are pairs that represent the same sounds. For example, ア has the same sound as あ, and ケ has the same sound as け. If you have already learned hiragana, recall its pair to find the sound. Katakana has short strokes and many straight lines, so its shapes look different from hiragana. Memorize the sounds through the pairs, and learn the shapes separately.

Distinguishing Similar Characters

Three pairs of characters look alike, so learn the criteria for telling them apart separately.