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I am very early on in my Japanese-learning journey. So if others contradict me, they are probably a better source. :) But from what I understand Hirigana is us
by dfinninger 4y ago
I am very early on in my Japanese-learning journey. So if others contradict me, they are probably a better source. :)
But from what I understand Hirigana is used more for Japanese words, and Katakana more for loan words from other languages.
It actually leads to a nice shortcut for some words. If I’m reading Hirigana I’ll try to match that with words in Japanese that I know. However, if the word I’m looking at is Katakana, I’ll flip that off and start trying to match phonetically.
I assume with fluency this all becomes automatic, but I’m a ways off from that yet!
- hinoki 4y agoMy understanding is that katakana is used for situations where it’s the sound that is important, not necessarily the meaning. So it’s used for loan words, but also for onomatopoeia, and when writing your name down on a waitlist at a restaurant. (Often it is not clear how to pronounce a name from how it is written)
- enqk 4y agoKatakana is also used for the names of animals. Even when the name is native japanese.
- hinoki 4y agoYes! Sushi menus are often entirely in katakana.
- teek 4y agoThis is not correct. Sushi menus for restaurants in Tokyo use a mixture of kanji, hiragana, and katakana.
- innocentoldguy 4y agoThe reverse is true for words like たばこ (tobacco). It's a foreign word but is almost always spelled using hiragana.
- smsm42 4y agoYes, but Katakana is also sometimes AFAIK used for spelling out words that otherwise would be written with kanji, and sometimes for emphasis (like italics in Latin script).