There are several Japanese alphabets to learn, including Hiragana, Kanji, and Katakana. Of these, Hiragana is the best for beginners. It is the most basic of the three sets of the alphabet and it is the foundation of the written Japanese language.
Hiragana – A Beginner's Best Friend
Hiragana is the most basic of the 3 sets of alphabet for it is the foundation of the written Japanese language. It is the first set of characters that new language learners and children learn when they start studying. Hiragana is easier to learn when compared to Katakana and Kanji.
You should learn hiragana first, followed by katakana and kanji. Hiragana looks more cursive than katakana or kanji. It is used to write native Japanese words, conjugation endings, and grammar particles. Hiragana consists of 46 characters with each character representing a syllable.
Hiragana is the most commonly used, standard form of Japanese writing.
In a sense, hiragana is the most commonly used, standard form of Japanese writing. Japanese vocabulary usually tends to be written in hiragana as opposed to katakana. Also, hiragana is used to write furigana, a reading aid that shows the pronunciation of kanji characters, which is sure to be helpful.
Well, it's always safe to use the hiragana. You could technically write Japanese entirely in kana, although it would become very difficult to read and lack the context clues provided by kanji.
Because hiragana gets used for grammatical particles and modifiers. Remember, each kanji represents a concept. So when writing a verb, you use a kanji for the base concept, then hiragana to alter the pronunciation and add more meaning, such as the tense.
Something that almost everyone finds, including Japanese people, is that katakana is just harder to read than hiragana, so don't be discouraged if it takes you significantly longer to get used to it. It's blocky and doesn't flow very well.
It's common to see hiragana, katakana, and kanji (the three Japanese writing systems) in use even in shows set in futuristic spaceships and magical kingdoms. For example, Naruto often eats at a shop that says ラーメン on the awning, and if you've started learning your Japanese alphabets, you'll know that says ramen.
The major difference between hiragana and katakana is the fact that hiragana is primarily used to represent Japanese words, while katakana represents foreign words. Japanese is a language with many borrowed words, and katakana immediately alerts the reader to the fact that the word is an imported one.
In modern Japanese, katakana is most often used for transcription of words from foreign languages or loanwords (other than words historically imported from Chinese), called gairaigo. For example, "television" is written テレビ (terebi).
Hiragana is the first of the three Japanese writing systems and is the one that Japanese kids learn first. Once you know it, you will be able to read children's books entirely in Japanese since they are typically written in this script.
If you want to use Japanese textbooks and workbooks, you'll need to be able to read hiragana to get started. But, fortunately, it's really very easy to learn. You can learn hiragana in just a week (or even a day or two, if you're ready to buckle down!).
Because kanji characters are the hardest to master, children's books only use hiragana and katakana characters. That reminds me: hiragana and katakana also have a joint name: kana.
If you really want to study japanese, learn hiragana and katakana first, it will make things a lot easier, trust me. Most of the content avaible out there have romaji (how to read with roman letters) these days, but as you progress, this can really hurt your reading with real japanese alphabet.
Because most of the characters have only one pronunciation, Hiragana is quite easy to learn. No doubt, once you learn Hiragana, you'll create a firm foundation needed for a native-sounding accent.
Take note that Japanese Pokémon names are always written in katakana! As a rule of thumb hiragana characters are more fluid and rounded while katakana's are much more angular.
Hiragana is the basic Japanese phonetic script. It represents every sound in the Japanese language. Therefore, you can theoretically write everything in Hiragana. However, because Japanese is written with no spaces, this will create nearly indecipherable text.
Technically, you can write all of Japanese in Hiragana (that's how the first graders write). But it's not very easy to read.
Katakana is significantly tougher to master compared to Hiragana because it is only used for certain words and you don't get nearly as much practice as you do with Hiragana. To learn the proper stroke order (and yes, you need to), here is a link to practice sheets for Katakana.
Kanji has thousands of characters, and knowing hiragana makes it much easier to start learning it. And katakana, as you'll quickly discover, goes hand-in-hand with hiragana. So that's why we usually recommend learning in that order! Typically, learning hiragana and katakana takes just a week or two.
Like hiragana, Japan's third writing system, katakana, is a native alphabet based on sounds. But why did Japan have need for yet another writing system? The reason goes back, again, to the fact that reading kanji is difficult – and not just for non-Japanese people and women.
In the past, people favored hiragana as a tool to write waka （classical Japanese poems） and stories. In contrast, katakana was used for academic and practical purposes, such as writing Japanese commentaries on Chinese or Buddhist books and Japanese readings of Chinese characters used in old dictionaries.
Yes. Hiragana and Katakana are phonograms and there are many homonyms.
It is mostly tradition that keeps them writing Kanji, also the fact that once you learn it, it is somewhat faster to write than any phonemic alphabet.