Moji NinjaHiragana vs katakana vs kanji: what's the difference?
Japanese is written in three scripts at once. Hiragana is for grammar and native words, katakana for foreign words and emphasis, and kanji for the words that carry the main meaning. Hiragana and katakana each have 46 basic characters that stand for sounds, while kanji stand for meanings and number in the thousands.
Side by side
| Hiragana | Katakana | Kanji | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stands for | a sound | a sound | a meaning |
| Used for | grammar, native words | foreign words, names, emphasis | the main part of words |
| How many | 46 basic | 46 basic | thousands |
| What it looks like | rounded | angular | complex, many strokes |
| Example | ありがとう | コーヒー | 水 |
All three in one sentence
私はコーヒーを飲みます。
Watashi wa kōhī o nomimasu: “I drink coffee.”
| Part | Script | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 私 | kanji | I |
| は | hiragana | topic particle (read wa) |
| コーヒー | katakana | coffee, a loanword |
| を | hiragana | object particle |
| 飲 | kanji | the stem of “drink” |
| みます | hiragana | the verb ending |
Which to learn first
- Hiragana: about two weeks. It lets you read every sound in Japanese.
- Katakana: another one to two weeks.
- Kanji: start with N5. The course here goes up to 2,135 kanji.
Frequently asked questions
Why does Japanese have three scripts?
Kanji came from China. Hiragana and katakana developed from simplified kanji, to write the Japanese words and endings that Chinese characters could not.
Can I write Japanese in hiragana only?
Technically yes, and children start that way. But without kanji the words run together, because Japanese is written without spaces, and the text is hard to read.
Is kana an alphabet?
Hiragana and katakana are syllabaries: each character usually writes a whole syllable, like ka or mi, rather than a single letter.
What is romaji?
Japanese written in the Latin alphabet. It helps in the first days, but Japanese people do not use it for ordinary text.
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