Writing Japanese Katakana

Writing Japanese katakana characters can be learned in the same way as in writing hiragana.

Similarly, there are 46 of them. In this section you will get to learn the first 25 characters.

In the diagrams that you are going to see, the first character on the left in each row shows the full katakana character. The subsequent columns show you the strokes in the correct order.

By following the green line of each stroke, memorize how each katakana character is written. After a few rounds of practice, learn to write each character without looking at the diagram.

As compared to hiragana characters, katakana characters have more straight lines and more angular corners in terms of shape. But it's also not difficult to master how to write them after some practices.

Be careful of some katakana characters that look similar, like ソ (so) and ン (n). The main difference is the direction of the second stroke.

For ソ (so), the second stroke starts from the top right and diagonally down to the bottom left.

Whereas for ン (n), it's a stroke starting from the bottom left and diagonally up to slightly below the top right.

Write Katakana in the a-line

The following diagram shows how to write katakana characters ア (a), イ (i), ウ (u), エ (e) and オ (o) in the correct order and strokes.

Write Katakana in the ka-line

The following diagram shows how to write katakana characters カ (ka), キ (ki), ク (ku), ケ (ke) and コ (ko) in the correct order and strokes.

Write Katakana in the sa-line

The following diagram shows how to write katakana characters サ (sa), シ (shi), ス (su), セ (se) and ソ (so) in the correct order and strokes.

Write Katakana in the ta-line

The following diagram shows how to write katakana characters タ (ta), チ (chi), ツ (tsu), テ (te) and ト (to) in the correct order and strokes.

Write Katakana in the na-line

The following diagram shows how to write katakana characters ナ (na), ニ (ni), ヌ (nu), ネ (ne) and ノ (no) in the correct order and strokes.

Practise as many times as you can and you will be able to write katakana characters without referring to the diagrams quickly.

Do you want to learn more about how to write all the Japanese hiragana and katakana characters? Make sure you check out these video lessons where you will be guided through every single letter.

By the way, this link above is an affiliate link, which means that I would earn a commission if you do end up purchasing the related learning course. It's at no extra cost to you, and please if you have any questions related to this learning course, please let me know and I would be happy to answer them for you.

Related Pages

1. Learn to write katakana in the ha-line, ma-line, ya-line, ra-line, wa, wo and n.

2. Learn to write hiragana in the a-line, ka-line, sa-line, ta-line and na-line.

3. Learn to write hiragana in the ha-line, ma-line, ya-line, ra-line, wa, wo and n.

To know more, I recommend you take a look at this book on katakana.

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