Glossary for Japanese Learners
The elements of reading and writing Japanese
The elements of reading and writing Japanese
When you start learning Japanese you'll probably encounter new words to do with the construction of the language and its writing system even before you learn much in the way of vocabulary or grammar. This makes it quite different from learning a European language and can be confusing at first.
What is a kanji? What's the difference between hiragana and katakana? How do you use a sokuon? This glossary is a quick reference guide to answer just that sort of question.
What is a kanji? What's the difference between hiragana and katakana? How do you use a sokuon? This glossary is a quick reference guide to answer just that sort of question.
rōmaji ローマ字
Japanese can be written using the Roman alphabet that we use in English: the characters used in this method of writing are called rōmaji. The line over the letter o, called a macron, is to signify a long vowel sound. Beginners are often tempted to say "romanji" but note there is no "n" in this word. |
Example
kore wa hon desu. This is a book. |
kanji 漢字
Kanji are the Chinese characters used to write Japanese. Each character represents a word or idea and they can be used individually or in combination. As many as 10,000 different kanji are used in Japanese and about 2000 of those are needed for general use, such as reading newspapers and magazines. |
Example
日本料理 (nihon ryouri) Japanese food/cooking |
hiragana 平仮名
The hiragana characters are a set of syllables that make up all the sounds used in Japanese, so you could think of them as a kind of Japanese alphabet. Hiragana are sometimes used alone and sometimes in combination with kanji to make Japanese words. In modern Japanese there are 46 hiragana characters plus some slight variations and combinations. |
Example
ありがとう (arigatou) Thank you |
katakana 片仮名
The katakana characters are a second set of the same syllables as hiragana but are written differently, appearing straighter and more angular than the rounded, cursive hiragana. Katakana are mainly used for writing foreign words in Japanese but are also used sometimes for emphasis and have some other special uses. |
Example
サンドイッチ (sandoitchi) a sandwich |
gojūon 五十音
Hiragana and katakana are collectively known as kana. When kana are used in an index or displayed in a table, they are in a set order that begins with the 5 vowel sounds and ends with the n sound. The set of kana is called gojūon, literally meaning 50 sounds. The charts on the right, courtesy of the Tofugu web site, show hiragana (left chart) and katakana (right chart). Each chart has the 46 main characters on the right-hand side, with the smaller characters to the left showing the combinations and variations. Click on the images to show the full-size charts. |
Kana Charts
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youon 拗音
Youon means contracted sound. The kana sounds ki, shi, chi, ni, hi, mi and ri can each be combined with the kana sounds ya, yu and yo to produce a new sound. For example, shi can be combined with ya to make sha. These youon kana combinations are shown as small characters on the left side of the kana charts above. |
Example
シャンペン (shanpen) champagne |
dakuten 濁点
Dakuten is also called tenten sometimes. It looks like a quotation mark or the symbol for inches (") and is added to some kana to change the sound by making it "voiced" or harder-sounding. For example, か (ka) changes to が (ga) and ひ (hi) changes to び (bi). |
Example
ガソリン (gasorin) gasoline |
handakuten 半濁点
Handakuten is also called maru sometimes. It's a small circle like the symbol for degrees (°) and is added to the kana for ha, hi, fu, he and ho to change the sound to pa, pi, pu, pe and po. For example, へ (he) changes to ぺ (pe). |
Example
ペンギン (pengin) a penguin |
sokuon 促音
Sokuon is a small version of the kana character tsu, sometimes called 小さなつ (chiisana tsu), meaning small tsu. The full-size tsu character looks like this: つ (hiragana) and ツ (katakana), compared with sokuon っ (hiragana) and ッ (katakana). In rōmaji it is usually written as a double consonant. Its main use is to create a momentary pause as you start to pronounce the following consonant, hence the "double consonant". |
Example
ちょっと待って (chotto matte) wait a moment |
chouon 長音
Chouon, meaning long sound, is a double vowel sound. In hiragana one vowel is written after another but in katakana there is a special chouon character, a straight horizontal line. This character, written after a vowel, doubles the length of the vowel sound. |
Example
ウイスキー (uisukī/uisukii) whisky |
okurigana 送り仮名
Okurigana are the kana characters added after kanji to make words that can be inflected and conjugated, so that verbs and adjectives can be given negatives, past tenses etc. For example the kanji for "drink" is 飲. Adding okurigana can make this into a verb - 飲む - that can be inflected - 飲まない (not drink) - 飲んだ (drank). |
Example
食べる (taberu) to eat In this example the okurigana part is べる |
jouyou kanji 常用漢字
The jouyou (or jōyō) kanji is a list of 2136 kanji characters set by the Japanese Ministry of Education to be taught in schools. These "general use" kanji are the essential characters for everyday communication. The list was last revised in 2010, increasing the number of kanji from 1945 (set in 1981) to 2136. |
Links
Official List This is a pdf of the official list of jouyou kanji by the Agency for Cultural Affairs in Japan. Wikipedia List Another complete list that also has English meanings, stroke numbers and other information. |
kyouiku kanji 教育漢字
At primary school Japanese children are taught 1006 of the jouyou kanji, divided into six grades. This subset of the jouyou kanji is known as the kyouiku kanji, meaning education kanji. Because they are mostly the more commonly used characters, they account for about 90% of the kanji in general use. |
Links
Kyouiku Kanji List A complete list of the kyouiku kanji divided into the 6 grades with English meanings and compound examples, courtesy of 1776kanji.com Wikipedia Kyouiku Kanji List Another complete list of the kyouiku kanji from Wikipedia. |
jinmeiyō kanji 人名用漢字
In addition to the jouyou kanji, there is a list of kanji, known as the jinmeiyō kanji, that have official approval for use in Japanese names. There are currently 861 kanji characters on the list. |
Link
Wikipedia Jinmeiyō Kanji List A complete list of the current jinmeiyō kanji and history of changes made to the list. |
onyomi 音読み
One of the many complications of the Japanese writing system is that kanji, historically imported from China, can have two different types of reading (onyomi and kunyomi), which affect the way in which they are pronounced and used. Onyomi is the "Chinese reading" of kanji. Because the characters were imported from China in waves over hundreds of years, there can be a single onyomi of a kanji or there can be two or more different onyomi of the same kanji. |
Examples
Onyomi for the kanji 楽 音楽 (ongaku) - music 楽園 (rakuen) - paradise Onyomi for the kanji 飲 飲食 (inshoku) - drinking and eating, food and drink |
kunyomi 訓読み
Kunyomi is the "Japanese reading" of kanji. Whereas the way the onyomi of a kanji is pronounced is loosely based on its original Chinese pronunciation, the kunyomi is based on Japanese pronunciation. Unlike onyomi, the kunyomi reading of a kanji can often have okurigana (see above) attached to it to make a word. There can also be a single kunyomi of a kanji or there can be two or more different kunyomi of the same kanji. |
Examples
Kunyomi for the kanji 楽 楽しい (tanoshii) - fun, enjoyable Kunyomi for the kanji 飲 飲む (nomu) - to drink 飲み物 (nomimono) - a drink |
jukugo 熟語
Two or more kanji can be combined into a compound to make a new word. These compounds are called jukugo. Some of the words in the entries above, such as 音楽 (ongaku), 飲食 (inshoku) and 大学 (daigaku) are examples of jukugo. |
Example
新聞 (shinbun) newspaper |
bushu 部首
A bushu, known in English as a radical, is a part of a kanji indicating its field of meaning. It can be the left or right part of the kanji, the top or bottom part, an enclosure or the whole kanji itself. The order in which characters are listed in a kanji dictionary is generally according to their radicals. |
Example
木 tree (whole kanji is radical) 査 investigation (tree radical at top) 染 dye (tree radical at bottom) 机 desk (tree radical on left side) |