Katakana: same sounds, different shapes

Katakana covers loanwords, names, onomatopoeia and emphasis. It is the script on menus, on packaging and in half the vocabulary you already know in English.

It costs less than it looks

Katakana maps one-to-one onto hiragana: ア is あ, カ is か, and the same dakuten rules apply. If you know hiragana you are learning shapes for sounds you already have, which is far easier than starting cold. Budget a few days, not a few weeks.

The shapes that get confused

Four pairs cause most errors: シ and ツ, ソ and ン, ク and タ, and ワ and ウ. The difference is stroke direction — シ and ン are written with strokes coming from the side, ツ and ソ from the top. A timed game is unusually good for these, because it forces a decision instead of letting you stare.

The long vowel mark

Katakana writes long vowels with a bar: ラーメン, コーヒー, ケーキ. On a Japanese IME that bar is the hyphen key. Expect it in almost every loanword, and expect the vowel length to matter — ビル is a building, ビール is a beer.

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