Hiragana and Katakana Copy and Paste

Hiragana, katakana and kanji: what each one does

Written Japanese runs three scripts together in the same sentence. Kanji are characters borrowed from Chinese, each carrying meaning, and there are thousands of them. Hiragana and katakana are syllabaries: each character stands for a sound, there are only 46 basic ones in each set, and neither carries meaning on its own.

In a typical sentence the kanji carry the content words while hiragana supplies the grammar around them: particles, verb endings, adjective endings. Katakana marks a word as foreign or as deliberately set apart, the way italics work in English.

• Hiragana: native words, grammar, verb and adjective endings, particles such as は, を and の.
• Katakana: loanwords (コーヒー, coffee), foreign names, scientific names, onomatopoeia, emphasis.
• Kanji: nouns, verb and adjective stems, names. Each has a meaning and usually several readings.
• Furigana: small hiragana printed above a kanji to show how to read it.

How gojūon order works and how to read the chart

Gojūon (五十音) means fifty sounds. The chart is laid out by consonant row and vowel column: the vowels a, i, u, e, o come first, then k, s, t, n, h, m, y, r, w applied to those same five vowels. Japanese dictionaries, indexes and menus are sorted in this order, so it is worth internalising the sequence a-ka-sa-ta-na-ha-ma-ya-ra-wa.

Traditional charts are printed in columns read right to left, top to bottom. The grids on this page are laid out left to right in the same sequence, so reading straight across gives you a, i, u, e, o, ka, ki, ku, ke, ko, sa, shi, su, se, so and onward.

Four readings break the pattern and catch beginners out every time. In the s row, し is shi and not si. In the t row, ち is chi and つ is tsu. In the h row, ふ is fu, pronounced with a soft breath rather than an English f. The last two kana are their own case: を is wo, used only as the object particle and pronounced like o, and ん is a syllabic n, the only kana that is a consonant on its own.

Dakuten, handakuten and combination kana

Two short strokes at the top right of a kana, the dakuten (濁点) or ten-ten, voice its consonant. か ka becomes が ga, さ sa becomes ざ za, た ta becomes だ da, は ha becomes ば ba. A small circle instead, the handakuten (半濁点) or maru, applies only to the h row and turns it into p: は ha becomes ぱ pa.

Two pairs end up sharing a sound. じ and ぢ are both ji, and ず and づ are both zu. Modern spelling uses じ and ず almost everywhere. ぢ and づ survive in a handful of words, usually where a compound rejoins a repeated sound, as in 続く (つづく, tsuzuku) and 鼻血 (はなぢ, hanaji).

Combination kana, called yōon (拗音), pair an i-column kana with a small ゃ, ゅ or ょ. き plus small ゃ is きゃ kya, one syllable. Written with a full sized や it would be きや kiya, two syllables and a different word, so the size of that second character genuinely matters.

Small tsu っ and long vowels

The small tsu (っ in hiragana, ッ in katakana) makes no sound of its own. It doubles the consonant that follows it and inserts a short pause, the way the double t sits in the middle of the Italian word tutto. きって is kitte (stamp) while きて is kite (come). がっこう is gakkou, school. In romaji you simply write the following consonant twice.

Long vowels are handled differently in each script. In hiragana you add the vowel kana: おかあさん okaasan, おおきい ookii, ゆうき yuuki. The o row is the awkward one, since a long o is usually written with う rather than お, as in とうきょう, Tōkyō.

Katakana uses a single horizontal bar instead, the chōonpu ー (U+30FC). コーヒー is koohii, ラーメン is raamen, ケーキ is keeki. Note that it is a dedicated katakana character, not a hyphen and not an em dash, and in vertical writing it is drawn vertically.

Typing Japanese with an IME on Windows and Mac

An input method editor lets you type romaji and converts it to kana as you go. It is how essentially everyone types Japanese, on a completely ordinary keyboard.

On Windows 11, open Settings, then Time & language, then Language & region, and add Japanese. Windows installs the Microsoft IME. Switch between English and Japanese with the Windows key plus SPACE, and toggle between hiragana and direct alphabet input with the key at the top left (grave accent) or by clicking the A or あ indicator in the taskbar.

On macOS, open System Settings, then Keyboard, then Input Sources, click Edit, add Japanese, and pick Romaji. CTRL plus SPACE cycles through input sources, and CTRL plus SHIFT plus J switches straight to hiragana.

Once the IME is running, type the romaji and it appears as kana. Press SPACE to offer kanji candidates and ENTER to accept the kana as typed.

• Type nn or n followed by a consonant to get ん. Typing kanji gives かんじ, typing kan gives かん.
• Small kana: type an x or l in front, so xa gives ぁ and xtsu gives っ. Doubling a consonant also works, so kitte gives きって.
• The long vowel bar ー is the minus key while the IME is in katakana or hiragana mode.
• Press F7 on Windows or CTRL plus K on a Mac to convert what you just typed into katakana.

A sensible order to learn them in

Most learners get through both syllabaries in one to two weeks of short daily sessions. Hiragana first, because it is what beginner textbooks are written in and what furigana uses. Katakana second, and it goes faster because the sounds are already familiar.

Work row by row rather than trying to absorb all 46 at once, and write each kana by hand a few times. Stroke order matters less for recognition than it does for legible handwriting, but it helps the shapes stick.

• Day 1 to 2: あ い う え お and か き く け こ. That is already enough for かお, あき and いけ.
• Day 3 to 4: さ し す せ そ and た ち つ て と. Drill し shi, ち chi and つ tsu until they are automatic.
• Day 5 to 6: な に ぬ ね の and は ひ ふ へ ほ.
• Day 7 to 8: ま み む め も, や ゆ よ, ら り る れ ろ, わ を ん.
• Then dakuten and handakuten, which are five rows of the same shapes you already know, followed by the yōon combinations.
• Watch the look-alikes: め and ぬ, れ and わ, は and ほ, さ and き, シ and ツ, ソ and ン, ク and ワ.