# Hiragana versus Katakana



## alchemda

Hey there

New to the site, but once I stumbled upon it I think this place will help me tremendously with learning Japanese. Currently my first language is English, and I'd really like to learn Japanese.

Currently I'm using Rosetta Stone to learn Japanese and its pretty good, though all they do is give you pictures, sound out the phrase describing the picture and show you how its written out. They leave it up to you to try to understand the grammar in it. It's not perfect but I've picked up on a lot.

In Rosetta stone they allow you to see the words in either Hiragana or katakana. I know they are both syllable writings but I find Hiragana far more easier to read than katakana. Primarily because katakana has really complex characters.

My question is can you learn Japanese just reading hiragana? I've searched the wiki sites but I have not really been able to find out if katakana is primarily used in books, billboards, those types of things.

Also, when some anime is fansubbed it usually has hiragana for the karaoke, but I notice the credits done by the anime studio are katakana, is there a reason why it seems most karaoke is written in hiragana?

Am I better off learning Hiragana then learning katakana?

Any links, or help before I get too far into my lessons would be a great help.

Thanks in advance

PS. I apologize if this topic has been brought up, but I searched the forums and didn't find a topic relating to it.


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## Matching Mole

By all means learn hiragana first, for obvious reasons, not least of which is that it is used for grammatical purposes: conjugating verbs, for particles and so on. Also, in textbooks kanji are spelled out in hiragana in example sentences, etc., and furigana (little hiragana) are used to mark the pronunciation of difficult kanji in material for Japanese readers, and very frequently used in material for Japanese children. This is incredibly useful for learners.

However, katakana is widely used in everyday Japanese, and increasingly so. The main reason for this is that it is used for loan words, the great majority of which are from English. You will also see Japanese words written in katakana, seemingly at random, for example in manga, where it is used for emphasis. It's a little like our use of all-capitals in English when we want to emphasize something.

I began by learning hiragana in a structured way, but spent less time on katakana at first. I brushed up on katakana at a later stage. Have you tried some of the mnemonic systems for learning kana? For example Heisig's "Remembering The Kana". I used "brute force", myself, but I think the mnemonic systems can speed up learning, and can be of help if you are having difficulties. The books tend to be expensive, though, and compared to kanji, there really aren't _that_ many to learn.


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## alchemda

Awesome, that helps clear some stuff up, I appreciate it! I ordered both his kana and kanji books after I read what you said. Thanks for the help. Anyone else with more information about hiragana and katakana is always welcome


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## timpeac

The use of katakana for foreign words is very useful because it allows you to spell it out to yourself and, knowing it's a foreign word and probably English-based, work out what it means.


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## SpiceMan

Sometimes is useful, but beginners should always keep in mind that Japanese' "English" (wasei eigo) more often than not have a meaning that has little relation with the English word.


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## Matching Mole

I forgot to mention that species names are written in katakana; many plant and animal names are written in katakana in every day use, even quite common ones where a well-established kanji exists.

And in manga, of course, the principal sound-effects are written in katakana.


I hope you find those books useful. It has to be said that the Heisig kanji system is somewhat controversial (it has its strenuous opponents), and may not be for everyone. However, you will only know this if you try, and make your own mind up. Personally, I would have entirely given up learning kanji if it was not for this system, as I have an atrocious memory.


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## kuronekotan

Hy I pretend to study Japanese and I´ve been told that its required to leard the sylabaries of hiragana and katakana but a discussions I had sometime ago got me to doubt. Are they really that related or is it possible to learn Japanesse both spoken and written without knowing hiragana and katakana?


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## 2PieRad

Yes, they're both necessary if you want to read/write in Japanese. They are related by the fact that each character in hiragana has a counterpart in katakana with the exact same pronunciation. Though they have the same pronunciation, hiragana is used for Japanese words, while katakana is used to spell out words borrowed from foreign languages (usually English). Technically, you can substitute both with romanji, but people simply don't write in romanji regularly or in professional setting.


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## kuronekotan

Thank you for clearing it out I shold do my best to continue learnning this sylabaries an so learn Japanese as well as I know English one day.


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## Flaminius

Moderator Note:
Posts from #8 have been a separate thread.  They have been merged to this thread because they address the same topic.  Other topics involving hiragana and katakana (and even kanji) can be easily found by searching the Japanese forum for thread titles with these key words.  Feel free to post additional comments in relevant threads!

Flaminius,
JP moderator


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