The second Japanese syllabary in full — the complete chart with romaji, the voiced and combination kana, the long-vowel mark, the extended kana for foreign words, and the lookalikes that catch everyone out.
Japanese uses three scripts: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. Katakana (カタカナ) is the sharp, angular one — all straight lines and crisp corners, where hiragana flows and curves. It maps to exactly the same set of sounds as hiragana: あ and ア are both "a", か and カ are both "ka". Learning katakana is therefore mostly learning a second set of shapes for sounds you may already know.
So why a whole separate script for the same syllables? Because Japanese uses katakana to make certain words stand out, the way English uses italics or capitals. You'll see it for:
If you can read a restaurant menu or a tech ad in Japan, a large share of what you're decoding is katakana.
Like hiragana, the 46 base katakana sit in a 5-vowel grid called the gojūon. Read each row left to right; the vowel order is always a – i – u – e – o.
| a | i | u | e | o | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| – | アa | イi | ウu | エe | オo |
| k | カka | キki | クku | ケke | コko |
| s | サsa | シshi | スsu | セse | ソso |
| t | タta | チchi | ツtsu | テte | トto |
| n | ナna | ニni | ヌnu | ネne | ノno |
| h | ハha | ヒhi | フfu | ヘhe | ホho |
| m | マma | ミmi | ムmu | メme | モmo |
| y | ヤya | ユyu | ヨyo | ||
| r | ラra | リri | ルru | レre | ロro |
| w | ワwa | ヲwo | |||
| n | ンn |
The notorious lookalikes. A handful of katakana are easy to confuse — train these deliberately:
Exactly as in hiragana, two small strokes (dakuten, ゛) or a small circle (handakuten, ゜) at the top-right change the consonant: k→g, s→z, t→d, h→b (dakuten) or h→p (handakuten). The base shapes stay the same.
| a | i | u | e | o | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| g | ガga | ギgi | グgu | ゲge | ゴgo |
| z | ザza | ジji | ズzu | ゼze | ゾzo |
| d | ダda | ヂji | ヅzu | デde | ドdo |
| b | バba | ビbi | ブbu | ベbe | ボbo |
| p | パpa | ピpi | プpu | ペpe | ポpo |
To write sounds like "kya" or "sho", a kana ending in i is followed by a small ャ, ュ, or ョ. The pair reads as one syllable — the small size is what tells you to blend them rather than read two beats.
| + ya | + yu | + yo | |
|---|---|---|---|
| キ | キャkya | キュkyu | キョkyo |
| シ | シャsha | シュshu | ショsho |
| チ | チャcha | チュchu | チョcho |
| ニ | ニャnya | ニュnyu | ニョnyo |
| ヒ | ヒャhya | ヒュhyu | ヒョhyo |
| リ | リャrya | リュryu | リョryo |
| ギ | ギャgya | ギュgyu | ギョgyo |
| ジ | ジャja | ジュju | ジョjo |
This is the single biggest way katakana differs from hiragana in everyday writing. Where hiragana spells a long vowel out with an extra vowel kana, katakana uses a simple bar — ー (written vertically in vertical text). It just means "hold the previous vowel longer."
So コーヒー is kō-hī (coffee), not "kohi" — both bars double a vowel. ケーキ is kēki (cake), スーパー is sūpā (supermarket). Miss the bar and the word often stops making sense, so it's worth getting into the habit early.
Japanese borrows words from languages with sounds it doesn't natively have — "fa", "ti", "we", "che". Katakana stretches to cover them by pairing a kana with a small vowel (ァ ィ ゥ ェ ォ). You won't see these in hiragana; they exist precisely to spell loanwords more faithfully.
| Written | Reads | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ファ | fa | ファン — fan |
| フィ | fi | フィルム — film |
| フェ | fe | カフェ — café |
| フォ | fo | フォーク — fork |
| ティ | ti | パーティー — party |
| ディ | di | ディスク — disc |
| ウィ | wi | ウィスキー — whisky |
| ウェ | we | ウェブ — web |
| チェ | che | チェック — check |
| ジェ | je | ジェット — jet |
| ヴ | vu | ヴァイオリン — violin |
You don't need to memorise every combination — once you grasp the pattern (base kana + small vowel = a sound Japanese borrowed), you can read new ones on sight.
Just like hiragana's small っ, katakana's small ッ isn't pronounced on its own — it doubles the consonant that follows and marks a tiny pause. So ベッド is "beddo" (bed) and カップ is "kappu" (cup).
Drill the recall step here. The kana typing game shows you a character and asks you to type its romaji against the clock — the exact active-recall drill above, turned into a combo chase. Switch it to katakana mode to grind the angular shapes, and its mastery tracker surfaces the ones you keep missing.
New to the scripts? Start with the hiragana chart & reading guide — it covers the same ground for the first syllabary — or see how the two compare in hiragana vs katakana.
Katakana mainly writes words borrowed from other languages — コーヒー (coffee), コンピューター (computer), レストラン (restaurant) — plus foreign names, brand names, and onomatopoeia. It also names plants and animals in scientific writing, and works like italics when you want a word to stand out.
Not really. It covers the exact same 46 sounds, so once hiragana is solid, katakana is the same sounds in new, more angular shapes. The only extra difficulty is a few lookalike pairs — see hiragana vs katakana — so most learners pick it up faster the second time.
There are 46 basic katakana, one per sound in the gojūon chart. Adding the voiced marks (dakuten and handakuten), the small-y combinations, and the extended katakana for foreign sounds pushes the readable total higher, but every one is built from those original 46.
That dash is the chōonpu (ー), the long-vowel mark. It stretches the vowel before it, so コーヒー is kōhī and ケーキ is kēki (cake). Hiragana repeats a vowel kana instead, but katakana uses this single bar.
The classic traps are シ (shi) versus ツ (tsu), and ソ (so) versus ン (n). The trick is stroke direction: シ and ン sweep upward from below, while ツ and ソ come down from the top. Drilling these pairs on purpose in the typing game is the fastest way to separate them.