Katakana (カタカナ)
INDEX
Basically…
Katakana is one of Japan’s alphabets.
A little Deeper
There are actually three alphabets in Japanese. They are:
・Hiragana (ひらがな)
・Katakana (カタカナ)
・Kanji (漢字)
Katakana is like the ABC’s in English. it is very similar to Hiragana.
It is used mostly for words from other countries outside of Japan. Katakana is also used for words representing sounds, emphasizing words, and for scientific vocabulary.
https://japaneseuniverse.com/2024/02/18/pac-man-in-japaneseconcepts-behind-development-to-global-icon/
There are about 50 characters. They look like this:
カメラ
Which says kamera. Yes, that is the same as camera in English.
What do they sound like?
Every character has one sound.
For example, look at the three Katakana below:
カ is pronounced ka
メ is pronounced me
ラ is pronounced ra
Put them together
カメラ is pronounced kamera.
Putting it all Together
So, when you hear Katakana, just think of Japan’s Alphabet used to write words from other countries.
