Kanji and kana
Practical guides on speaking, grammar, pronunciation, listening, and study planning, written for learners who want to use Japanese in real life.
Kanji and kana · Page 8
Japanese Kanji for School and Work: 学 校 先 生 会 社 仕 事 and Business Cards
Sixteen kanji cover most of what you read on a school timetable, an office door and a business card: 学 校 生 先 教 室 for study, 勉 強 試 験 for effort and exams, and 会 社 仕 事 働 員 for the world of work.
12 min readJapanese Kanji Radicals by Meaning Group: Water, Fire, Tree, Person and More
Nine radicals, water, fire, tree, person, hand, heart, speech, road and roof, sit inside hundreds of everyday kanji, and once you can spot them you can guess the rough meaning of a character you have never studied.
13 min readJapanese Hiragana Word List for Beginners: 85 Words That Drill Every Row
The best first hiragana vocabulary is a short list of words you will hear on day one, arranged so that each group drills a few kana rows, and this list of about 85 words does exactly that with a sentence for each group.
11 min readJapanese Kana Print vs Handwritten Shapes: Reading き, さ, そ, ふ and り
A handful of hiragana, especially き, さ, そ, ふ, り, ら and な, are printed with joined strokes that nobody actually writes by hand, so learners who only know the font shape stumble on handwritten menus, notes and signs.
13 min readKatakana Reading Practice with Menus and Signs: Real Words, Real Places
The fastest way to get fluent at reading katakana is to practise on the words you will actually meet, menu by menu and sign by sign, sounding each one out until the English hiding inside it appears.
12 min readRomaji Systems Explained: Hepburn, Kunrei-shiki and Typed Romaji
Tōkyō, Tokyo, Toukyou and Tôkyô are the same word written four ways. Knowing why saves confusion on signs, forms and keyboards.
7 min readは, へ and を: Reading and Writing the Particles wa, e and o
Three particles are written with one kana and read as another. Once you can spot them in real sentences, they stop slowing you down.
6 min readHiragana Stroke Order: The Rules and the Kana People Get Wrong
Hiragana have few strokes, so the order seems unimportant. It is exactly what makes your kana look written rather than drawn.
7 min readChecking a Japanese Kanji Tattoo Before You Get It
A kanji tattoo is read by everyone who knows Japanese, often more literally than the wearer expects. Checking it first costs an hour; fixing it costs far more.
7 min readJapanese Kana That Look Almost Identical
Four katakana account for most of the confusion in the whole script, and they differ by the direction of two short strokes.
6 min readDakuten and Handakuten: The Marks That Change Kana
Two tiny marks in the corner of a kana are doing the same job that a whole separate letter does in most alphabets.
6 min readSmall Kana: How Ya, Yu and Yo Combine
A small ya, yu or yo does not add a beat; it changes the one before it, and that distinction decides whether a word is recognisable.
5 min readPractical guides
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