Saturday, July 16, 2011

Numbers ( すうじ, Suuji )

There are two ways of writing the numbers in Japanese, in Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3...) and in Chinese numerals (一, 二, 三...). Here I have included only Arabic numerals and their pronunciations.


In English
日本語
Pronunciation
0
ゼロ (in katagana)
Zero
1
いち
Ichi
2
Ni
3
さん
San
4
よん or 
Yon  / Shi
5
Go
6
ろく
Roku
7
なな
Nana
8
はち
Hachi
9
きょう / く
Kyuu / Ku
10
じゅう
Juu
100
ひゃく
Hyaku
1000
せん
Sen
10000
まん
Man

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Katagana Characters ( カタガナ)

A complete Katagana chart is given below. Please visit here to practice writing Katagana with correct strokes.























Hiragana Characters (ひらがな もじ , Hiragana Moji )

A complete Hiragana chart is given below. Please visit here to practice writing Hiragana with correct strokes.

Gojuon

Dakuon

Han-Dakuon

Yōon


Introduction ( しょうかい, Shoukai )

Japanese language (日本語, Nihongo) , like any other language, is easy to learn as far as speaking is concerned. But most of the beginners finds it complex at the beginning of learning as japanese language consists of three scripts: Kanji, Hiragana and Katagana.

Kanji : 
Kanji scripts are derived from Chinese scripts. Kanji is a pictorial script and is primarily used for symantics. One kanji can have different meaning depending on the context it is used. There are thousands of Kanji and even a Japanese Literature teacher can know as much as around 7000 Kanji. 

Hiragana :
Hiragana is what one can call the Japenese alphabetThere are 46 basic forms. Basically hiragana is used in where there are no kanji, such as in verb inflections, particles. The list of Hiragana characters is available here.

Katagana :
Katakana is similar to Hiragana as it is a kind of Japanese alphabet too and for each Hiragana, there is Katagana . Nevertheless, Katakana is used in completely different situations. The main role of katakana is for writing out foreign-derived words. Secondly, Katakana is used to put emphasis on words, similar to the western use of italics, underlines. The list of Katagana characters is available here.