# Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana



## nuno

Japanese has 3 systems. Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana. But since Kanji is much more difficult to learn than the other two systems, can Japanese be written with only those two? And form correct sentences also?


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## COF

Yes, Japanese can be written in only Hiragana and Katakana, and your writting would be perfectly understood, but without a knowledge of Kanji you'd have problems reading Japanese text.


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## jmx

Anything in Japanese can be written with just _kanas_. But in practice I think that only books intended for little children are written without _kanjis_.


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## Cracker Jack

Japanese writing system of Hiragana and Katakana are syllable based. For each syllable, there is a corresponding character. Hiragana system is used for writing words that are indigenous to Japanese language or Nihingo. Examples are : oishi, ibe, tsugi, Nichiyoubi, etc.

The Katakana system is the one used for writing borrowed or foreign words. Examples: cassette (ka-se-to), Christmas (ku-ri-su-ma-su), tape (te-po). But Katakana can also be used for writing indigenous or native Japanese words.

The Kanji system is one that uses one character for a particular word. It is easier to write a word of at least 5 syllables with one character than 5.
Life is made more convenient this way. I just don't know what other reasons are. Let's wait for native speakers.

Just imagine a word like cyclopentanoperhydrophenanthrene written as one or two characters. The days of the week are the best examples. Nichiyoubi, Getsuyoubi, Kayoubi, etc.


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## frequency

Yes, and you can imagine the kanji work roughly if you think like this....
Nouns and a part of verb can be written in kanji.
for example,
　　
私は学校に行く。

私 and 学校 (school) are nouns

行く　is verb/go 
行＋く, this hiragana く can express tense/negation with its flection and addition.

は　and　に　are particles that work like a preposition


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## pablopaul

Hey, frequency, so after your explanation, I still don't know what the phrase you wrote means. Could you translate it into English, please?
And to all, do you know if average Japanese students study all three systems at school, when learning how to read and write? And, if everyone does, then how many kanjis does an average educated Japanese person know and/ or use?
thanx


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## instantREILLY

私は学校に行く。 means "I go to school."

Japanese students learn all 3 systems of writing.  There are actually government-issued Kanji lists, designed for each grade level.  Elementary School students learn 1006 Kyouiku kanji.  Junior High and High School students learn an additional 939 kanji.  All of those kanji combined are called the Jouyou (common-use) Kanji.  So there are 1945 common-use kanji.  There are many more, outside this, but they are not required.  These are mostly only for names and obscure words, both of which usually appear in writing along with their reading in kana next to or above the kanji (this is called furigana).


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## frequency

instantREILLY said:
			
		

> So there are 1945 common-use kanji.


 
Yes but most of us don't memorize and write every 1,945 jyou-you kanji. We actually omit _extremely_ difficult kanji, use easier and common ones. So don't worry.
Moreover we surely have chance to read kanji a lot but when it comes to writing, we have word-processing computers now..

It's difficult to define how many kanji are used. Perhaps 1,000 to 1,500 kanji of 1,945....? this is my personal opinion, so please don't rely on!


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## Xaphirezst

I wonder whats the diffrence between hiragana and katakana?


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## Mutichou

Xaphirezst said:
			
		

> I wonder whats the diffrence between hiragana and katakana?


Look at this table.
Hiragana are used to write particles, termination (is this the correct word?) of verbs and adjectives, and all the words when you don't know the kanji.
Katakana are used to write foreign names.


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## Xaphirezst

But we can also do the same with just katakana right?


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## frequency

Xaphirezst said:
			
		

> But we can also do the same with just katakana right?


 
Oh yes, that's right. Actually we were doing that during and before WWII.

But we had to deal with the words express the foreign countries and things in large amount after WWII, you know we have imported a lot of things from other countries nowadays. 

See details->http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katakana


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