Katakana Chart: The Complete Guide
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This page gives you a katakana chart you can actually learn from.
In this article I'll give you the full 46-character katakana chart, with romaji for every base form, then show you voiced and semi-voiced forms, contracted sounds, the long-vowel mark, and common extended spellings for foreign sounds. It's all laid out as a system rather than a wall of symbols, so by the end you'll know what each part does and why katakana gets used.
Katakana can look intimidating because it's a second whole set of kana on top of hiragana. The good news is that its 46 base forms map onto the same core sounds you're learning in hiragana, just with sharper, more angular shapes. If you've met hiragana, the system will already feel familiar, and you can work through katakana one row at a time over a week or two.
I learned my kana the same way I tackle everything in a new language: I stopped treating it as something to admire and started using it straight away, spotting katakana words on signs, menus and packaging all over Japan. That's where it clicked. Half the fun is that loads of katakana words come from other languages, including plenty from English. The Japanese pronunciation can shift, but you'll still get lots of little lightbulb moments when a word turns out to be familiar.
What Is Katakana (and How It Differs from Hiragana)
If you want the quick overview before you get into the chart, this video shows how katakana fits alongside hiragana and kanji.
Japanese is written with three scripts working together: hiragana, katakana and kanji. Hiragana and katakana are the two phonetic scripts together called kana. More precisely, they're mora-based scripts rather than alphabets. Their 46 base sets cover the same core sounds, while katakana also uses extra combinations for some foreign sounds. The biggest difference is how the two scripts are used.
Hiragana commonly handles grammatical endings and particles, along with Japanese words that aren't written in kanji. Katakana often marks loanwords and foreign names, but it has several other jobs too. If you see those sharp, angular characters, you're probably looking at one of these:
- Loanwords borrowed from many languages. コーヒー (kōhī), from Dutch, is “coffee”; テレビ (terebi), shortened from English “television”, means “television”; and パン (pan), from the Portuguese pão, is “bread”.
- Foreign names, both people and places. If your name isn't normally written with Japanese kanji, katakana is usually how it will be written in Japan.
- Onomatopoeia, which can be written in katakana for extra force. ワンワン (wanwan) is a dog's bark, while ドキドキ (dokidoki) describes a pounding heart.
- Emphasis, a bit like italics in English. A word that would normally be hiragana or kanji gets written in katakana to make it pop.
- Scientific and technical terms, including many plant and animal names in scientific contexts.
Foreign and borrowed words are a useful first clue, but katakana isn't simply an “outside” script. It can also add emphasis or mark sounds and specialist terms within Japanese. Think of usage as a set of strong patterns rather than one rule with no exceptions.
If you'd like the bird's-eye view of how all three scripts fit together, our guide to the Japanese alphabet walks through hiragana, katakana and kanji side by side.
The Full Katakana Chart: 46 Base Characters
The heart of it is the gojūon (“fifty sounds”), the base katakana chart. Read this version like a grid: the five vowels run across the top (a, i, u, e, o), and each row groups a related set of sounds. Most follow a consonant-plus-vowel pattern, so the K row gives you ka, ki, ku, ke, ko.
| a | i | u | e | o | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| – | ア (a) | イ (i) | ウ (u) | エ (e) | オ (o) |
| k | カ (ka) | キ (ki) | ク (ku) | ケ (ke) | コ (ko) |
| s | サ (sa) | シ (shi) | ス (su) | セ (se) | ソ (so) |
| t | タ (ta) | チ (chi) | ツ (tsu) | テ (te) | ト (to) |
| n | ナ (na) | ニ (ni) | ヌ (nu) | ネ (ne) | ノ (no) |
| h | ハ (ha) | ヒ (hi) | フ (fu) | ヘ (he) | ホ (ho) |
| m | マ (ma) | ミ (mi) | ム (mu) | メ (me) | モ (mo) |
| y | ヤ (ya) | ユ (yu) | ヨ (yo) | ||
| r | ラ (ra) | リ (ri) | ル (ru) | レ (re) | ロ (ro) |
| w | ワ (wa) | ヲ (o; often keyed as wo) | |||
| n | ン (n) |
A few notes so nothing trips you up:
- Three sounds break the tidy pattern, exactly as they do in hiragana: シ is shi (not “si”), チ is chi (not “ti”), and ツ is tsu (not “tu”). Worth flagging now so they don't surprise you later.
- The Y and W rows have gaps because the 46-character base chart has no separate kana in those slots. Modern foreign words can still write sounds such as ye, wi and we with combinations including イェ, ウィ and ウェ.
- ヲ is pronounced o in modern standard Japanese. You'll still see it labelled wo in some kana charts and when typing, but the katakana form is rare in ordinary modern text. Its hiragana counterpart を is common as a grammar particle.
- ン (n) is the moraic nasal in the base set. It counts as one beat, or mora, even though it isn't a consonant-plus-vowel unit. You'll see it at the end of パン (pan), for example.
That's the full base set. The marked, small and combined forms below build on it, while ー is a separate long-vowel mark.
Dakuten and Handakuten: The Voiced and Semi-Voiced Sounds
Katakana now rewards you for the work you've already done. You don't learn a fresh batch of characters for the voiced sounds. You take characters you already know and add a small mark.
Two little strokes in the top-right corner (called dakuten, or informally tenten, “dot dot”) switch a sound to its voiced version. So カ (ka) becomes ガ (ga), and サ (sa) becomes ザ (za). In the standard chart, a small circle (called handakuten, or maru, “circle”) appears on the H row, turning it into P sounds: ハ (ha) becomes パ (pa).
| a | i | u | e | o | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| g | ガ (ga) | ギ (gi) | グ (gu) | ゲ (ge) | ゴ (go) |
| z | ザ (za) | ジ (ji) | ズ (zu) | ゼ (ze) | ゾ (zo) |
| d | ダ (da) | ヂ (ji) | ヅ (zu) | デ (de) | ド (do) |
| b | バ (ba) | ビ (bi) | ブ (bu) | ベ (be) | ボ (bo) |
| p | パ (pa) | ピ (pi) | プ (pu) | ペ (pe) | ポ (po) |
A couple of things to know:
- The D row has a quirk. In modern standard Japanese, ヂ and ヅ are usually pronounced like ジ and ズ, and they're romanised ji and zu here. The D-row spellings occur in limited contexts, while the Z-row forms are much more common.
- In the standard chart, only the H row takes the handakuten circle to make the P sounds.
So the voiced and semi-voiced sounds are really just five rows of “characters you know, plus a mark”. That's the whole trick.
Yōon: The Combination Sounds
The last piece of the standard chart is yōon, the contracted sounds. These are made by taking certain kana from the i column, such as キ, シ and チ, and adding a small ャ, ュ or ョ. The two characters combine into one mora.
| + small ya | + small yu | + small yo | |
|---|---|---|---|
| k | キャ (kya) | キュ (kyu) | キョ (kyo) |
| sh | シャ (sha) | シュ (shu) | ショ (sho) |
| ch | チャ (cha) | チュ (chu) | チョ (cho) |
| n | ニャ (nya) | ニュ (nyu) | ニョ (nyo) |
| h | ヒャ (hya) | ヒュ (hyu) | ヒョ (hyo) |
| m | ミャ (mya) | ミュ (myu) | ミョ (myo) |
| r | リャ (rya) | リュ (ryu) | リョ (ryo) |
| g | ギャ (gya) | ギュ (gyu) | ギョ (gyo) |
| j | ジャ (ja) | ジュ (ju) | ジョ (jo) |
| d | ヂャ (ja) | ヂュ (ju) | ヂョ (jo) |
| b | ビャ (bya) | ビュ (byu) | ビョ (byo) |
| p | ピャ (pya) | ピュ (pyu) | ピョ (pyo) |
The thing to watch is size. A full-sized ヤ is the mora ya on its own, while a small ャ combines with the kana before it. キヤ is ki-ya, two morae, but キャ is kya, one mora. The D-row forms ヂャ, ヂュ and ヂョ follow the same pattern, although they're hardly ever used.
The Small ッ (Double Consonants)
One more small character does a big job: ッ, a shrunken ツ called the sokuon. It marks a full mora of consonant closure or timing before the next consonant, which romaji usually shows by doubling that consonant. In ベッド (beddo, “bed”) it comes before the d, and in サッカー (sakkā, “soccer”) it comes before the k. A full-sized ツ is the mora tsu; the small ッ isn't pronounced tsu, but it isn't nothing either, because it changes the word's rhythm.
The Long-Vowel Mark ー (Chōonpu)
The long-vowel mark is used mainly with katakana, and it's a lovely simple one.
When a vowel sound is held longer, katakana marks it with a single straight line: ー. It's called the chōonpu, and it just means “stretch the vowel before me”. Write it horizontally in horizontal text, vertically in vertical text.
This is different from the usual hiragana pattern. Hiragana normally writes a long vowel with another vowel kana, although the exact spelling varies: おう is common for a long o, while おお occurs in some words. Katakana normally uses the line:
- コーヒー = kōhī (“coffee”), with the line stretching both the “ko” and the “hi”.
- ラーメン = rāmen (“ramen”), holding the “ra”.
- ケーキ = kēki (“cake”).
- スーパー = sūpā (“supermarket”, short for スーパーマーケット).
Once you spot the ー, you know the vowel in front of it is a long one. It's one of the easiest wins in the whole script, and it shows up constantly because so many loanwords have long vowels.
Extended Katakana for Foreign Sounds
Katakana also needs to handle foreign sounds that aren't part of the traditional core inventory, including fa, ti and va. One solution is to pair an existing character with a small vowel (ァ, ィ, ゥ, ェ, ォ) to move it towards the new sound.
The table below gives you common examples rather than every possible spelling. You don't need to memorise them like the base chart, but they're worth recognising because they turn up in names and modern loanwords.
| Kana | Romaji | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ファ フィ フェ フォ | fa, fi, fe, fo | ファイル (fairu, “file”) |
| ティ ディ | ti, di | パーティー (pātī, “party”) |
| トゥ ドゥ | tu, du | タトゥー (tatū, “tattoo”) |
| ウィ ウェ ウォ | wi, we, wo | ウィスキー (wisukī, “whisky”) |
| ヴァ ヴィ ヴ ヴェ ヴォ | va, vi, vu, ve, vo | ヴァイオリン (vaiorin, “violin”) |
| シェ ジェ チェ | she, je, che | シェフ (shefu, “chef”) |
| ツァ ツィ ツェ ツォ | tsa, tsi, tse, tso | モーツァルト (mōtsaruto, “Mozart”) |
The ヴ (vu) series gives you a way to show a source-language v more directly, but Japanese often uses the B row instead. That's why you'll see both ヴァイオリン and バイオリン for “violin”, and both ヴィーナス and ビーナス for “Venus”. Those pairs are established spellings, but check the usual form of any new word rather than swapping バ and ヴ at random.
The Most Confusing Look-Alike Pairs
Some katakana shapes are easy to mix up, especially in an unfamiliar typeface. The useful clues are the position and direction of the strokes, not one printed font.
シ (shi) vs ツ (tsu). The classic trap. Look at the two short strokes and the direction of the long one. On シ (shi) the two short strokes sit one above the other on the left, lying almost flat, and the long stroke sweeps up from the bottom. On ツ (tsu) the two short strokes sit side by side along the top, standing more upright, and the long stroke comes down from the top right. A memory hook: shi smiles up, tsu drips down.
ン (n) vs ソ (so). The main stroke in ン rises from the lower left towards the upper right, while the main stroke in ソ begins higher and comes down. Printed fonts vary, so copying the stroke direction is safer than judging the angle from one typeface.
ク (ku), ワ (wa) and タ (ta). タ has three strokes, while ク and ワ have two. In handwriting, ク has a narrow downward sweep, while ワ begins with a more upright first stroke and opens into a wider second one. Compare the stroke order as well as the finished shape.
ナ (na) vs メ (me). ナ starts with a horizontal stroke, followed by a downward sweep through it. メ is built from two diagonal sweeps. That first horizontal line is the useful clue.
Writing these out by hand can help because stroke order and direction stay consistent even when fonts change. Trace each one first, then mix the pairs together and try writing them from memory.
How to Learn Katakana Step by Step
Katakana is a small, finite set, which makes it one of the most satisfying early wins in Japanese. I'd go after it like this:
- Learn it in rows, one consonant set at a time. Five characters a day (the vowels, then the K row, then the S row) and you've got the base chart inside a fortnight. Don't try to swallow all 46 at once.
- Write each character by hand. This is especially useful for the look-alike pairs. Trace the strokes, then cover the model and write the character from memory.
- Lean on familiar loanwords. Plenty of modern katakana vocabulary comes from English, even though the pronunciation or meaning may have shifted. Reading テレビ and realising it comes from “television” is a genuine little thrill, and it turns practice into a game.
- Read katakana in the wild. Look at menus, signs, packaging and brand names. Real words give you context that a chart or flashcard can't provide on its own.
- Use spaced repetition. A flashcard app like Anki can keep the characters fresh while they bed in. A short regular review is more useful than one big cram, so adjust the time to the characters you keep missing.
Once katakana feels comfortable, you've got real momentum. Build on it with our guide to 101 core Japanese words, get your head around Japanese numbers, and learn how to tell the time in Japanese. For the full lay of the land, the Japanese language masterclass ties it all together.
Reading the script is only ever step one, though. The real goal is using Japanese with actual people, and that's exactly what we build inside the Fluent in 3 Months Bootcamp: a community and a method for getting you speaking your new language with real humans, fast, with me coaching you through it.
For now, you've got the complete base chart and the main extra forms you'll meet. Go and find some katakana out in the world and see how much of it you can already sound out.
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