Extended Katakana for Loanwords (ファ, ヴィ, ティ, トゥ, and the Full Small-Vowel System)
Extended katakana for loanwords: the small-vowel chart of ファ, ヴ, ティ, トゥ and the rest, when each is used, plus the 1991 Cabinet notation rules.
Extended katakana for loanwords: the small-vowel chart of ファ, ヴ, ティ, トゥ and the rest, when each is used, plus the 1991 Cabinet notation rules.
Hiragana vs. katakana, sorted: which script handles native words, loanwords, names, onomatopoeia, and emphasis, plus the curly-vs-angular visual test.
How to write your name in katakana: the mora-fitting workflow, the l→r, th→s/z, v→b/ヴ rules, double consonants, long vowels, and worked examples.
Katakana mnemonics compared: how Tofugu, Dr. Moku, Kana Quest, and Heisig stack up, the shared-shape shortcut from hiragana, and when to retire them.
Katakana stroke order explained: the MEXT standard for all 46 base kana, the angular shapes that make it lighter than hiragana, and the シ/ツ direction rule.
Long vowels in katakana: how the chōonpu ー extends any vowel by one mora, why hiragana uses doubled kana instead, and the エイ vs エー split.
Lookalike katakana, sorted: the stroke-direction rule that disambiguates シ/ツ and ソ/ン, plus the roof-and-bar tests for ク/ワ/ウ/フ and ヲ/フ.
Katakana chart explained: the 46 gojūon kana, 25 dakuten and handakuten, 33 yōon, a preview of extended loanword sounds, and why the count is 46.
History of katakana: the 9th-century Buddhist-monk shorthand origin, the kanji-component mechanism, the pre-war legal-script role, and the 1946 flip.
When native Japanese words appear in katakana: emphasis, onomatopoeia, scientific names, slang, signage, and stylized speech, with a reading and writing rule.