Katakana Chart with Romaji: All 46 Kana, Dakuten and Combinations

The table below gives every katakana with its Hepburn romanization, from the 46 basic characters to the extended forms used for foreign words. Click any character to copy it.

The 46 basic katakana (gojūon)

	a	i	u	e	o
—
k
s
t
n
h
m
y
r
w
n

Katakana with dakuten and handakuten

	a	i	u	e	o
g
z
d
b
p

Katakana combinations (yōon)

	ya	yu	yo
k
s
t
n
h
m
r
g
j
b
p

Extended katakana for foreign sounds

	a	i	u	e	o
f
t
d
w
y
sh
j
ch
v
ts

To type whole words, use the Japanese Keyboard Online.

What katakana is used for

Katakana is one of the two Japanese syllabaries. Each character stands for a syllable, not a single letter, and every katakana has a hiragana twin with the same sound: カ and か are both ka. The script was created around the 9th century by Buddhist monks who annotated Chinese texts with simplified fragments of kanji; カ, for example, comes from the left part of 加, and イ from the left part of 伊.

Today katakana mainly writes loanwords (gairaigo) and foreign names: コンピューター (konpyūtā, computer), テレビ (terebi, television), アメリカ (Amerika). It is also used for onomatopoeia (ドキドキ, a pounding heart), for animal and plant names in scientific writing (ネコ, cat), for brand names and to make a word stand out, a little like italics in English.

Foreign names are adapted to Japanese phonology, where almost every syllable ends in a vowel. John becomes ジョン (Jon), Michael マイケル (Maikeru), Mark マーク (Māku), and London ロンドン (Rondon). Because Japanese has no separate l and r, both become the r row: ラリルレロ.

Long vowels, small ッ and voicing marks

Three signs change how a katakana is read:

The long vowel mark ー lengthens the previous vowel: コーヒー (kōhī, coffee), ビール (bīru, beer). In romaji it is shown with a macron (ō) or a doubled vowel.
The small ッ doubles the next consonant, with a short pause before it: ベッド (beddo, bed), カップ (kappu, cup). Compare the full-size ツ (tsu).
Dakuten ゛ and handakuten ゜ voice a consonant: カ (ka) becomes ガ (ga), ハ (ha) becomes バ (ba) or パ (pa).

The small ャュョ combine with an i-column character to form one syllable: キャ (kya), シュ (shu), チョ (cho). Written full size, キヤ would be read as two syllables, ki-ya.

Extended katakana and look-alike characters

To approximate sounds missing from Japanese, katakana uses combinations with small vowels: ファ (fa), ティ (ti), ディ (di), ウィ (wi), シェ (she), ジェ (je), チェ (che) and ツァ (tsa). パーティー (pātī, party) and ディズニー (Dizunī, Disney) are typical. The letter v can be written with ヴ (ヴァ, ヴィ, ヴェ…), but many common words still use the b row: ビデオ (bideo, video).

Several katakana look alike, and these pairs cause most reading errors:

シ (shi) and ツ (tsu), ン (n) and ソ (so): in シ and ン the long stroke rises from the bottom left; in ツ and ソ it falls from the top right.
ク (ku), ケ (ke) and タ (ta): タ is ク with an extra stroke inside, and ケ has a horizontal bar and a long tail.
ワ (wa), ウ (u) and フ (fu), as well as チ (chi) and テ (te).

How to type katakana

On a computer with a Japanese input method, you type the romaji and convert: ko-hi- followed by F7 on Windows (Control-K on macOS) gives コーヒー. The hyphen key produces the long vowel mark ー, xtu or ltu gives a small ッ, and vu gives ヴ.

Our Japanese keyboard converts romaji to kana as you type: turn on transliteration mode, then press the あ/ア button to switch from hiragana to katakana. Typing ko-hi- gives コーヒー (the hyphen types the long vowel mark ー). On this page you can also click any character in the chart to copy it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many katakana are there?

There are 46 basic katakana. Adding the dakuten (゛) and handakuten (゜) marks gives 25 more, and the small ャュョ produce 33 combinations such as キャ (kya). On top of that come the extended forms like ファ or ティ, created for foreign sounds.

How do I write my name in katakana?

Split your name into the sounds you actually pronounce, then match each one to a katakana. Japanese syllables end in a vowel or ン, so a vowel is added after lone consonants: Mark becomes マーク (Māku), John ジョン (Jon), Emily エミリー (Emirī). Long vowels take the bar ー, and a dot ・ separates first and last name, as in ジョン・スミス.

What is the difference between hiragana and katakana?

Both represent the same sounds, one character per syllable. Hiragana, with rounded shapes, writes native words and grammatical endings; katakana, angular, writes loanwords, foreign names, onomatopoeia and words given emphasis. コーヒー (coffee) is in katakana, while the particle は is in hiragana.

What does the long dash ー mean in katakana?

It is the chōonpu, the long vowel mark. It doubles the length of the vowel before it: コ is ko, コー is kō. It is used almost only with katakana, and in vertical text it is written as a vertical line.

Why is ヲ (wo) so rare in katakana?

ヲ is pronounced o today and is used almost only as the grammatical particle を, which is normally written in hiragana. Katakana ヲ appears only in text written entirely in katakana, such as old telegrams or robot speech in manga. Loanwords use オ or ウォ instead.

How can I tell シ and ツ, or ソ and ン, apart?

Look at the stroke direction. In シ (shi) and ン (n), the short strokes are more horizontal and the long stroke sweeps upward from the bottom left. In ツ (tsu) and ソ (so), the short strokes are more vertical and the long stroke falls from the top right.

How do I type katakana on a computer?

With a Japanese input method, type in romaji and press F7 on Windows or Control-K on macOS to convert the word to katakana. On this page you can also click any character in the chart to copy it.

What is the fastest way to learn katakana?

Learn the 46 basic characters row by row (a, ka, sa…), then read real loanwords: menus, brand names, place names. Since most katakana words come from English, you can guess the meaning once you can sound them out, which makes practice self-checking.

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Abdelmounaim Akadid

Passionate about technology, web development and languages. Creator of ClavierVirtuel.com, a tool built to make multilingual typing easy for everyone.