Modern Japanese is written in a combination of Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana. The kanas (hiragana and katakana) are relatively easy to learn. Those wishing to study Japanese are well advised to begin by learning to read the kanas. HIRAGANA: Hiragana is used: - to write Japanese words which do not have a kanji, - as a guide to denote sounds of unusual or difficult kanji, - for grammatical particles - for verb and adjective inflictions e.g. 見る (miru, "see") 見た (mita, "saw"). Note that the kanji is the same but the hiragana indicates verb tense. - in furigana which is small hiragana written about kanji characters to indicate sounds (often seen in Japanese language textbooks and childrens story books) Hiragana is smoothly written with flowing curves. KATAKANA The katakana sounds are the SAME as the hiragana sounds, however they are written differently. Some kana are quite similar looking (e.g. "ka" Hiragana か Katakana カ) and I therefore learned k...
Comments
Post a Comment