Hiragana vs Katakana: What Is the Difference?
Hiragana vs katakana is one of the first questions every Japanese learner asks. The short answer: both are Japanese syllabaries that write the same sounds, with 46 basic characters each. Hiragana writes grammar endings, particles and many words of Japanese origin. Katakana writes loanwords, foreign names, and words that need to stand out, such as sound effects or emphasis.
What is the difference between hiragana and katakana?
In a syllabary, each character stands for a sound, usually a syllable such as ka or mi. Hiragana and katakana cover exactly the same sounds. What changes is the shape and the job.
Hiragana looks rounded and curvy. Katakana is made of straighter, sharper strokes. Here are a few sounds written in both.
| Sound | Hiragana | Katakana |
|---|---|---|
| a | あ | ア |
| i | い | イ |
| ka | か | カ |
| sa | さ | サ |
| n | ん | ン |
Hiragana is the everyday script. You see it in words like ねこ (neko, cat), in verb endings, and in particles such as は, を and に, the small words that show how a sentence fits together. It is also printed in small letters above or beside kanji to show how they are read, in books for children and learners.
Katakana is for words that came from other languages, such as テレビ (terebi, television), and for foreign names and places, such as ロンドン (Rondon, London). It is also used for many sound effects in manga, and for emphasis, a little like italics in English.
Are hiragana and katakana used together?
Yes. Most Japanese writing mixes hiragana, katakana and kanji, the characters that came from Chinese. Here is a simple example.
コーヒーを飲みます。
Kōhī o nomimasu.
I drink coffee.
- コーヒー (kōhī, coffee) is katakana, because coffee is a loanword. The line ー makes the vowel before it long.
- を (o) is a hiragana particle that marks the thing you drink. It is the character for wo, but it is said o.
- 飲 is the kanji for drink, and みます is written in hiragana. The ます part makes the verb polite.
Long vowels are written differently in each script. Hiragana adds a vowel, as in おかあさん (okāsan, mother). Katakana usually uses the line ー instead.
Particles can also change their sound. In こんにちは (konnichiwa), the last character is は (ha), but as a particle it is said wa. Our page on how to say hello in Japanese explains why.
Should I learn hiragana or katakana first?
Learn hiragana first. It writes the particles and verb endings, so you meet it in almost every sentence, and beginner books and dictionaries use it to show how words are read. Once hiragana feels comfortable, katakana is quicker, because you already know the sounds and only need the new shapes.
After that, start kanji gradually, a few at a time, alongside the words you are learning. Japanese uses thousands of kanji, so nobody learns them all at once. Even the first JLPT level includes some basic kanji, as our guide to the JLPT levels from N5 to N1 explains.
How long does it take to learn hiragana?
It depends on how much time you give it. Many learners can recognise the basic hiragana within one to two weeks of short daily practice. Reading quickly takes longer, and that comes from seeing the characters in real words again and again.
A good habit is to learn a few characters a day and read them in simple words straight away, rather than memorising a chart on its own.
How LanguaCards helps
In LanguaCards, Japanese words are grouped by JLPT level, from N5 to N1. Every card has audio, and romaji is shown under the Japanese, so you can hear each word while you get used to the scripts. You can switch romaji off as your reading improves. Reviews bring each word back before you would forget it.