Extended katakana

Japanese borrows many words. For sounds the basic kana don't have — f before vowels other than u, v, ti, di, she — katakana pairs a regular character with a small vowel.

Practise extended katakana

F sounds

フ (fu) plus a small vowel.

Examples: ファミリー (famirī, “family”), フィルム (firumu, “film”), カフェ (kafe, “café”).

V sounds

ヴ is ウ with dakuten. Many words are more often written with the バ row, which is how Japanese pronounces them anyway: バイオリン is more common than ヴァイオリン (“violin”).

Examples: ヴァイオリン (vaiorin, “violin”), ヴェネツィア (Venetsia, “Venice”).

W sounds beyond ワ

Examples: ウィキペディア (wikipedia), ハロウィン (harowin, “Halloween”).

Ti, di, tu, du

テ デ ト ド plus a small vowel (or a small ュ), because the regular チ and ヂ are chi and ji.

Examples: パーティー (pātī, “party”), ディズニー (dizunī, “Disney”). Older loanwords often kept チ and ジ: チケット (chiketto, “ticket”), ラジオ (rajio, “radio”).

Che, she, je and the tsa row

Examples: チェック (chekku, “check”), シェフ (shefu, “chef”), ジェット (jetto, “jet”), モーツァルト (mōtsaruto, “Mozart”).

Why extended katakana matters

With only the basic katakana you'll stumble on brand names, menus and newer loanwords: パーティー, フォーク, ディズニー. Extended katakana is how Japanese writes the sounds it borrowed.

Frequently asked questions