How Japanese is written
Hiragana, katakana and kanji, and how they mix.
Japanese is written with three scripts at once: hiragana and katakana, two sets of kana that spell sounds, and kanji, characters taken from Chinese that carry meaning. Most sentences use all three. Latin letters, called rōmaji, also turn up in abbreviations, brand names and signs.
The three scripts
| Script | What it is | Used for | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hiragana | 46 basic kana with rounded shapes | Grammar endings, particles, words without common kanji, and the readings of kanji | ひらがな, です, ありがとう |
| Katakana | The same sounds in straighter, sharper shapes | Words from other languages, foreign names, sound words, emphasis | カタカナ, コーヒー, アメリカ |
| Kanji | Thousands of characters, each with a meaning and usually several readings | Most nouns, and the stems of verbs and adjectives | 漢字, 山, 食べる |
Each basic kana is one beat of sound: a vowel (あ a), a consonant and a vowel (か ka), or ん n. Hiragana alone can spell any word, but adults write most nouns, verbs and adjectives with kanji, and a long text in kana only is hard to read.
Kanji and their readings
The 2,136 jōyō kanji, the official list for everyday use, cover most of what you'll read. Many kanji have two kinds of reading: a kun reading, which is a native Japanese word, and an on reading, which comes from the old Chinese pronunciation. A kanji on its own or followed by kana usually takes its kun reading; in a word of two or more kanji it usually takes its on reading.
| Kanji | Meaning | Kun reading | On reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| 人 | person | ひと hito | じん jin in 日本人 nihonjin, にん nin in 三人 sannin |
| 山 | mountain | やま yama | さん san in 富士山 Fujisan |
| 水 | water | みず mizu | すい sui in 水曜日 suiyōbi |
| 食 | eat | た in 食べる taberu | しょく shoku in 食事 shokuji |
| 生 | life, birth | い in 生きる ikiru | せい sei in 学生 gakusei |
One sentence, three scripts
- Watashi wa maiasa kōhī o nomimasu.I drink coffee every morning.
| Part | Script | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| 私 watashi | Kanji | "I" |
| は wa | Hiragana | Particle marking the topic |
| 毎朝 maiasa | Kanji | "Every morning" |
| コーヒー kōhī | Katakana | "Coffee", a loanword |
| を o | Hiragana | Particle marking the object |
| 飲 no | Kanji | The kanji of the verb 飲む nomu "drink" |
| みます mimasu | Hiragana | The rest of the verb, in its polite form |
Okurigana
Kanji usually write the part of a word that stays the same, and hiragana write the ending that changes. These kana after a kanji are called okurigana.
- 食べる taberu "eat" is 食 + べる, so it becomes 食べた, 食べない.
- 書く kaku "write" is 書 + く, so it becomes 書いた, 書きます.
- 高い takai "high, expensive" is 高 + い, so it becomes 高くない, 高かった.
Furigana
Furigana are small kana printed above a kanji, or to its right in vertical text, to show how it is read. They appear in children's books, in material for learners, and over rare kanji and unusual names.
No spaces
Japanese is written without spaces between words. The mix of scripts shows where words begin: a word often starts with kanji or katakana, and the hiragana after it is an ending or a particle. Books for small children, written mostly in hiragana, put spaces between phrases instead.
Direction
Japanese can be written horizontally, left to right as in English, or vertically, top to bottom, with the columns running from right to left. Websites, textbooks and most work documents are horizontal. Novels, newspapers and manga are usually vertical, and their books open from what an English reader would call the back.
Punctuation
| Mark | Use |
|---|---|
| 。 | Full stop, called maru |
| 、 | Comma, called ten |
| 「」 | Quotation marks, also for speech in stories |
| 『』 | A quote inside a quote; titles of books and films |
| ・ | Separates the words of a foreign name: ジョン・スミス Jon Sumisu |
| ー | Lengthens a vowel in katakana: コーヒー kōhī |
| 々 | Repeats the kanji before it: 人々 hitobito "people", 時々 tokidoki "sometimes" |
| ？ ！ | Common in casual writing; formal writing usually ends a question with 。 |
See Pronunciation for how the kana sound, and Spelling with kana for the small marks and kana that extend them.
Cards from this guide
10 cardsEach card asks about one thing this guide teaches, and its back gives the answer with why and an example. They're reviewed with the rest of the Getting started cards.
Which Japanese script writes particles and the changing endings of verbs and adjectives?
Hiragana.
Which script is mainly used for words from other languages, like コーヒー (kōhī, coffee)?
Katakana.
Which script writes most nouns and the stems of verbs and adjectives?
Kanji: characters taken from Chinese, each with a meaning.
What's the difference between a kanji's kun reading and its on reading?
Kun is a native Japanese word; on comes from the old Chinese pronunciation.
Which reading does a kanji usually take in a word made of two or more kanji?
Its on reading.
What are okurigana?
The hiragana after a kanji that spell the changing end of a word.
What are furigana?
Small kana printed above or beside a kanji to show how it's read.
Japanese is written without spaces, so what shows where a word begins?
The mix of scripts: a word often starts with kanji or katakana.
In vertical Japanese text, which way do the lines run?
Each column runs top to bottom, and the columns go from right to left.
What does the mark 々 do?
It repeats the kanji before it.