There are Katakana, Kanji and Hiragana in Japanese, right?
But i don´t know what is used normally or how to use them.
Can someone give me some tips?
Thanks!

Katakana is mainly used for adopting foreign words, such as English words. It is also used in place of Hiragana when emphasis is put on the word.

Kanji is borrowed from Chinese characters. It is these characters that gives words the proper meaning.

Hiragana is like syllables in English. And a string of several Hiraganas would pronounce the words. All Kanji pronunciation can be spelt out with Hiragana, but because some words sound the same, that's why Kanji is used to give the meaning, rather than just Hiragana.

Those are some of the basics. I didn't formally study Japanese so hopefully I didn't get it wrong. But I did learn the Hiragana and Katakana. I know Chinese myself so I know and can guess what the Japanese Kanji means as well.

nice explanation

what can I add more? :nah

Names of animals and fishes are often written in katakana (ネコ、マグロ)

So I have to learn all these alphabets. It´s so complicated for me, cause i am used to learning latin languages.

Can you give me some useful links ?

Thanks so much!
Have a nice day!

Practice Hiragana and Katakana character:

http://www.realkana.com/

I find this site really good because it displays a character and you'll have to type in the correct romaji. If you don't remember, just move your mouse over the character and it'll display a cheat, um I mean the answer, for you. The best part is, you can do so at your own pace and select only a certain of columns of the character to test yourself. So you can do like "a i u e o" first, then progressively go on to "ka ki ku ke ko" and etc when you feel comfortable enough.

In the Free Lessons thread (http://yui-lover.com/index.php?showtopic=3965), there are more Japanese learning sites listed.

Yeah, katakana used for adopting foreign words.
Altough English usually adopted, other languages too.
For easy example like YUI song RUIDO.

But some artist in Japan also write his / her name by katakana,
instead of hiragana or kanji.. Like Utada Hikaru.
She write Utada in kanji, but Hikaru in katakana..
I heard it because style or anything former...

what if its in a plural form?how to form it a sentence?is the subject of the sentence must be the first?

the sentence structure should be STPOV

which is:

S: subject
T: time
P: place
O: object
V: verb

note: there's adverb to learn, which for me it's too complicated @@

for plural case,

human(polite) use prefix -tachi. ex: watashitachi (us)

human(daily conversation) and others use prefix -ra. ex: bokura (us)

pls correct me if im wrong

:yoyo

what about boku ga?what do you mean by that?

the "ga", in your case, is a connective. So "boku ga" is an incomplete sentence just means "I".

A connective is use to connect the subject and to connect the object in a proper sentence. The usage of "ga" (が) is similar to "wa" (は - when used as a connective), but "ga" is more direct and specific about the subject or object that the sentence is referring too.

Correct me if I'm wrong since I didn't take any proper Japanese classes.

thx for the link! i really need a self quiz for those kata and hira.....what about roma....well anyway thx for the link

yeah this is correct.. but basically both "wa" and "ga" are correct.
reminder that though it is pronounced as wa, that connective is written not the hiragana for "wa" but rather the hiragan for "ha"...

For information..

In plural case, for object like people, using prefix -tachi.
Watashi-tachi, Boku-tachi, Ore-tachi, Anata-tachi ...

"wa" is more specific to subject THAN object.
Usually before connective word 'wa' is subject.
"ga" is more specific to subject AND object.
Usually after connective word 'ga' is object.

Although we said "wa", the hiragana used is "ha".

Please correct me if I'm wrong since I haven't study anymore...

thanks for the website it really helps me out :good

Is it possible that i can write my name in Katakana, Kanji and Hiragana. And the meaning doesn´t change?

Have a nice day!

From the experience i had..
Like i said before (if not wrong),
Katakana used to adopt foreign languages..
Foreign things should write in katakana..
But real names (Japanese) usually write in kanji or hiragana..

Hiragana usually used for children,
because they still learning any kanji studies for that age..

Kanji is mainly used by teenagers or adult.
City, names, place, usually write in kanji too.
I think kanji is hard to write,
and if u write kanji wrong just a little,
The meaning also become different..

Please, correct me if i wrong..

hmmm.... okay okay im taiwanese.. speak mandarin and a few others

kanji is chinese, though pronounced completely differently how do i learn them?

btw im learning my hiragana and katakana now, though dunno what to study after that?
any advice? @@

Hello milkyway.

After mastering HIragana/Katakana, you can attack japanese grammar !
Find you a good teaching book and do the lesson. You can fing some lessons on the internet though, but I think a book is better, because you can bring it with you everywhere, and when you're on a PC, you get always distract. Then, you can start learning Kanji along with your ljapanese lessons. Good luck and good work !

ps : I like eating you Milkyway...

Advice from me..

You need someone to teach you..
If by yourself, i think you had a lot of questions to ask,
So you can ask to your "teacher"...

thx alot guys.... :clap
though finidn a teacher would be hard here..besides my parents dunno im learning japanese (they wouldn want me to as my chinese is still bad)>.<'' :sry
though i do have freinds on msn who teach me japanese well, but they have limited time so hehe :sry

How about person in this forum??

lol...well this current topic helps? haha!

Pretty much everyone has already given you the answers and it's not that hard to learn the Hiragana and Katakana. Suggest learning row by row and revise when you are about to go to sleep.

You have to remember that there's two readings for Kanji. Onyomi (Mandarin/Chinese reading) and Kunyomi (Native/Japanese reading).

You pretty much have to learn those too :shock

For example.

水 water.

For Kunyomi it's mizu (water) but if it's combined with another or more character like this 水曜日 (Wednesday) it's suiyoubi. It's kind of handy if you have learnt/know abit of Chinese.

It's a little to grasp it but you'll get use to it.

Oh yeah, in the Japanese language there's no plurals!

Example again.

There's a cat over there.
あそこが猫（ねこ）います。
Asoko ga neko imasu

Most Japanese would actually see it as "There's cats over there"

@Yue
Your example sentence is grammatically wrong.
It should be "Asoko ni neko ga imasu"(あそこに猫がいます).

:what Thanks, thought there was something wrong with that sentence. LOL!

if you seriously want to learn japanese, check out this topic i posted earlier:
http://yui-lover.com/index.php?showtopic=3965
if youre still learning the kana, lesson 0 is very helpful! :good

but my advice is, if you seriously wanna learn japanese, you NEED to go to a school and take lessons. Self study will help you to a certain extent. The rest you need to attend lessons.

‚ª‚ñ‚΂Á‚Ä‚Ë�I�O�O

Please translate these phrases for me!

Happy birthday!
Merry Christmas!
Goodluck !

Thanks !
Have a nice day!

I wanna learn jap, but i know NOTHING =O =O =O =O =O =O

there are lots of sites out there that can teach you... from the very beginning =D (so it doesn't matter if you don't know anything) -- I started out not knowing anything... but now I can read kana (though I still get some of the hirugana mixed up :sry ) and understand simple phrases.


for listening, I found www.japanesepod101.com very helpful.

Please translate for me!
Thanks!

Happy birthday! = otanjoubi omedetou gozaimasu!
Merry Christmas! = merry christmas (same, but used japanese pronouncation)
Goodluck ! = ganbatte kudasai!, ganbare! (informal used)

hehe,, I've learn japanese since a year ago... If you want to ask, I'll help If I can..
:sry :sry