In words that contain an r sound after a vowel, the katakana word usually just extends the vowel sound.Ex: mark -> ma-ku (The - in these examples represents the chouon, above.)Ex: fork -> fo-ku The v sound is generally replaced by the b sound.Ex: video -> bideo D and t, when they do not have a vowel after them, are usually replaced withdoandto,respectively.Ex: dress -> doresu Ex: contest -> kontesuto The "j" sound, when it doesn't have a vowel after it, is usually replaced withji.Ex: orange -> orenji The other single consonant sounds, when they do not have a vowel after them, are usually replaced with the appropriate consonant followed by u. (Some notable exceptions to this are the words cake and steak, which turn into ke-ki and sute-ki.)Ex: class -> kurasu Ex: club -> kurabu Ex: home -> ho-mu L and r are both replaced with characters from thera ri ru re roline of the katakana table.Ex: milk -> miruku Ex: room -> ru-mu The "see" sound is generally replaced withshi. (The newer combination of aseorsucharacter followed by a half-sizeduis used in some words.)Ex: sink -> shinku The tu sound is generally replaced with chu. (The newer combination of thetocharacter followed by a half-sizeduis used in some words.)Ex: tube -> chu-bu The soft "th" sound is replaced with characters from thesa shi su se sorow of the katakana table.Ex: thank you -> sankyu- Ex: bath -> basu The hard "th" sound is replaced with characters from theza ji zu ze zorow of the katakana table.Ex: weather -> ueza- Since the only w sound in Japanese iswa, all other w sounds are generally replaced withu.Ex: wine -> wain Ex: waiter -> ue-ta- Ex: whisky -> uisuki- Words that have a short vowel followed by a consonant will often double the consonant. (This is not the case when the consonant is n.)Ex: truck -> torakku Ex: bed -> beddo Ex: pet -> petto Ex: pen -> pen The "y" sound, except when followed by a, o, or u, is usually replaced withi.Ex: you -> yu- Ex: year -> iya- In order to make foreign words sound more like their originals, additional character combinations have been introduced. These new combinations represent fa, fi, fe, fo, si, ti, tu, di, du, wi, we, wo, va, vi, vu, ve, vo, tsa, tsi, tse, tso, che, she, and je. This means that words that came into the language earlier will sometimes follow different spelling rules than words that have been introduced more recently.

Writing of the Characters

1) General Rules of Stroke OrdersBoth kana (hiragana and katakana) and Kanji have the same general rules of stroke orders.a. Write from top to bottom, and left to rightb. Horizontal before verticalWhen horizontal and vertical lines cross, horizontal lines are usually written before vertical lines.c. Character-spanning strokes last

Vertical line that pass through other strokes are written after the strokes passed through are written.

Hiragana with Diacritical Marks

You can create 23 additional sounds by adding diacritical marks. With short parallel lines, the unvoiced consonants [k], [s], [t], and [h] become voiced consonants [g], [z], [d], and [b] respectively. Additionally, by adding a small circle to [h], the sound changes to [p].

Transcribing Contracted Sounds

When small are added to the letters in the column except for , it transcribe contracted sounds. Contracted sounds are single syllable.

Transcribing Double Consonants

By using small , you can transcribe double consonants.gakki semester; termkittepostage stamp zasshimagazinetottoriTottori Prefecture (one of Japan's 43 prefectures)

Double consonant 'n' is transcribe with . anna iguidesanni n three people

Other Rules1) Long Vowels

[aa] - add to the step hiraganaokaasa n)'mother' (someone else's, not your own)[ii] - add to the step hiraganaoniisa n) 'older brother' (someone else's, not your own)[uu] - add to the step hiraganakuuki'air'[ee] - add to the step hiraganaoneesa n) 'older sister' (someone else's, not your own)[oo] - addto the step hiraganaho o ri tsu)'law'

* However, there are words that is added instead of .o o ki i)to o ) 'ten' in Japanese numeralo o sa ka) Osaka Prefectureko o ri) 'ice'to o ri'street'

2) Vowels to be Dropped

When vowel [i] and [u] are placed between voiceless consonants ([k], [s], [t], [p], [h]) or at the end of the sentence proceeded by voiceless consonants, they are sometimes omitted.suki ya ki de sus ki ya ki de sIt is 'sukiyaki', the beef dish.)