LESSON TRANSCRIPT

Absolute Beginner Questions

Answered by Hiroko #16
Which alphabet to use?

# 16
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Hi everybody! Hiroko here. Welcome to Absolute Beginner Questions Answered by
Hiroko, where Ill answer some of *your* most common Japanese questions.

The question for this lesson is When do I use the different Japanese alphabets?

When you write the Japanese word kokoro which means heart, can the first ko be
written in hiragana, the second ko in katakana and the last ro in either hiragana or
katakana or kanji?

The Japanese writing system is a combination of two character types - an ideogram

kanji, which was introduced from China, and a phonogram kana, which was derived
from kanji. Most Japanese words are generally written in kanji or kanji plus hiranaga to
express the meaning. Actually, we have four patterns to write words in the Japanese
language.

Firstly, only kanji. Many nouns and words of Chinese origin are often written in kanji
only. For example, meaning book or meaning weather.

Secondly, kanji and hiragana. The hiragana is called okurigana. And it is the hiragana
that follows kanji stems, and is generally used to inflect adjectives and verbs. For
example, meaning big or meaning to eat. Here, the ki i and the beru
are written in hiragana.

Thirdly, only hiragana. This is used when a person forgets how to write a word in kanji
or when words dont have kanji. For example, which means be excited
doesnt have kanji and is written in hiragana only.

Finally, only katakana. Imported words from other languages are primarily written in
katakana only. For example, meaning piano and meaning football.

Then when you write kokoro, you can use either hiragana or the kanji .
However, when Japanese native speakers see the kanji , they can immediately

JAPANESEPOD101.COM ABSOLUTE BEGINNER QUESTIONS ANSWERED BY HIROKO #16 - WHICH ALPHABET TO USE? 2
understand the meaning is heart because of the kanji. When they see the hiragana
version of , they have to find the meaning from the context.

Now lets talk about sentences a bit.

Almost all Japanese sentences contain a mixture of kanji and kana. For example,

Watashi has a kanji so it should be written in kanji .

An example of kanji plus hiragana is . Here, the imasu is in hiragana.

Words that are written in hiragana only are and .Hiragana is used for
grammatical elements, for example the particles and so on, and a copula
verb, .

Katakana is used for imported words like here as well as foreign

peoples names, onomatopoeia, scientific names, and sometimes for emphasis.

I hope this makes sense to you and youre able to use the alphabets correctly from
now on!

Do you have any more questions? Leave them in the comments below and Ill try to
answer them!

JAPANESEPOD101.COM ABSOLUTE BEGINNER QUESTIONS ANSWERED BY HIROKO #16 - WHICH ALPHABET TO USE? 3