Katakana Chart: The Loanword Script, With Romaji
By Michael McGettrickUpdated 19 October 2026
Katakana is the second Japanese syllabary. It writes the same 46 sounds as hiragana, in straighter, more angular strokes, and its main job is borrowed words: , coffee, and , television.
Quick check
Three quick questions on what you have just read. The full practice is further down.
Pick the right one
0/3Which romaji matches the katakana?
シ =
ツ =
ソ =
The katakana chart
Same rows, same order, same romaji as hiragana. Only the shapes are new:
| Row | Katakana | Romaji |
|---|---|---|
| vowels | ア イ ウ エ オ | a i u e o |
| k | カ キ ク ケ コ | ka ki ku ke ko |
| s | サ セ ソ | sa shi su se so |
| t | タ チ ツ テ | ta chi tsu te to |
| n | ナ ヌ | na ni nu ne no |
| h | ハ ヒ フ ヘ ホ | ha hi fu he ho |
| m | マ ミ ム メ | ma mi mu me mo |
| y | ヤ ユ | ya yu yo |
| r | ラ リ ル レ ロ | ra ri ru re ro |
| w | ワ | wa o |
| n | ン | n |
The two marks work exactly as in hiragana: カ becomes ガ (ga), ハ becomes バ (ba) and パ (pa). Small ャ ュ make the same combined sounds: キョ is kyo.
Several katakana are close to their hiragana partners, which gives you a head start:
| Hiragana | Katakana | Romaji |
|---|---|---|
| カ | ka | |
| き | キ | ki |
| ヘ | he | |
| り | リ | ri |
| mo | ||
| や | ヤ | ya |
Spelling loanwords
The long-vowel bar ー
Katakana marks a long vowel with a bar, ー, rather than an extra vowel. It runs along the line of writing, so it is horizontal in ordinary left-to-right text:
| Katakana | Romaji | English |
|---|---|---|
| kōhī | coffee |
パーティー | pātī | party |
Miss the bar and you miss a beat: the long o in takes twice as long as a short one.
Extra vowels
A Japanese syllable ends in a vowel or in ン, so a borrowed word gains vowels wherever English has a final consonant or a cluster:
| Katakana | Romaji | From |
|---|---|---|
| hoteru | hotel |
| toire | toilet |
| terebi | television, shortened |
| pan | Portuguese pão, bread |
is a reminder that not every loanword is English. Portuguese traders reached Japan in the sixteenth century, and the bread came with them.
Small vowels for new sounds
For sounds Japanese did not originally have, katakana adds a small vowel to a kana, just as small ャ ュ do:
| Combination | Romaji | Example |
|---|---|---|
| テ + ィ | ti | パーティー (party) |
| フ + ァ | fa | ソファ (sofa) |
| フ + ェ | fe | カフェ (café) |
Without the small ィ, テイ would be read tei. The small vowel is what turns two beats into one new sound.
The look-alikes
Three pairs account for most katakana misreadings. The secret for the first two is the direction of the long stroke:
| Katakana | Romaji | Tell them apart |
|---|---|---|
| / ツ | shi / tsu | : dots on the left, long stroke sweeps up; ツ: dots on top, long stroke falls |
| ソ / ン | so / n | ソ: short stroke on top, long stroke falls; ン: short stroke on the left, long stroke sweeps up |
| ク / ケ | ku / ke | ク: the top stroke turns its corner and sweeps down in one go; ケ: the bar stops flat, and a separate stroke drops from its middle |
In handwriting and in most fonts, the long stroke of and ン starts low and rises; that of ツ and ソ starts high and falls. Write each pair a few times in that direction and they separate for good.
The course's loanwords
Five katakana words in the first hundred, all worth reading until they are instant:
| Katakana | Romaji | English |
|---|---|---|
| kōhī | coffee |
| terebi | television |
| pan | bread |
| hoteru | hotel |
| toire | toilet |
Put them straight into a sentence: 。 (Toire wa doko desu ka.) is "Where is the toilet?", and the most useful sentence in this lesson.
Mistakes English speakers make
| Wrong | Right | Why |
|---|---|---|
| reading as tsu | shi | the long stroke rises: shi |
| reading ン as so | n | the long stroke rises: n |
| コヒー for coffee | the long o needs its bar | |
| English hotel | hoteru | a final consonant gets a vowel |
What to do next
- Read every loanword on a menu or a sign as katakana, not as English.
- Then go to は and です and start making sentences with
and.