Japanese Writing
By Namiko Abe, About.com Guide
Japanese characters are very different from those found in western alphabets. You might think it is hard to learn, but I think it is the most interesting and fun part of the Japanese language. There are three types of scripts in Japanese: kanji, hiragana and katakana. The combination of all three is used for writing. Already confused? Don't worry; these free japanese lessons will help you to understand Japanese writing step by step.
Kanji
Kanji are used for writing nouns, stems of adjectives, adverbs and verbs.
- Japanese Writing for Beginners
- Most Frequently Used Kanji
- Kanji Lessons
- Kanji Land
- Kanji of the Week
- Kanji for Tattoos
- Kanji Radicals (1)
- Kanji Radicals (2)
- Kanji Radicals (3)
- Yoji-Jukugo
- Kanji Challenge Reading Quiz
- 50 Popular Kanji
- What is On-reading and Kun-reading?
- When to use On-reading and Kun-reading?
Hiragana
Hiragana is used for grammatical endings of verbs, adjectives and nouns, as well as for particles, and several other words of Japanese origin.
- Hiragana Chart
- Hiragana Audio
- How to Write Hiragana
- Learning Hiragana
- Hiragana Lessons
- Let's Learn Hiragana with Japanese Culture
- Why "wa" is sometimes written as "ha"?
- How to write double consonants
- Two ways to write "ji" and "zu"
- Different writing style for "ki" and "sa"
- What is Furigana?
Katakana
Katakana is generally used for foreign names, places, and the words of foreign origin.
- Katakana in the Matrix
- What is the katakana "u" character with two dashes?
- What is the long dash that appears in katakana?
Calligraphy
Japanese calligraphy is the art of drawing characters with a brush to express spiritual depth and beauty.