Easy Peasy Japanese for Me

There are so many characters that are similar that recognizing the differences is difficult. This table helps me differentiate between katakana that have similar shapes. Slanted Curve a - ア i - イ n - ン no - ノ so - ソ me - メ tsu - ツ T Shaped Katakana mo - モ ya - ヤ hi - ヒ se - セ na - ナ Slanted Curve with a Bar on Top u - ウ wa - ワ wo - ヲ fu - フ nu - ヌ Slanted Curve with 2 Bars on Top ra - ラ te - テ Slanted Curve with a Bar and Dangly Pieces on Top ta - タ ke - ケ ku - ク Generally Vertical Katakana i - イ o - オ ki - キ ti - チ te - テ to - ト na - ナ ne - ネ ho - ホ mo - モ ya - ヤ yu - ユ yo - ヨ ri - リ ru - ル re - レ Weird or Unusual Katakana ...

Have you noticed there are two identical characters with one difference, they differ by size? ツ ッ ツ (tsu) - Full-sized character This is the regular katakana character that represents the sound "tsu" Example: ツアー (tsu a a) - tour ッ (small tsu) - Small-sized character This is called a "sokuon" or geminate marker It doesn't make a sound by itself - instead it creates a brief pause/stop and doubles the consonant that follows it Example: クッキー (ku kki i) - cookie * Note ッ = katakana small tsu (クッキー - cookie - ku kki i) っ = hiragana small tsu (がっこう - school - gak-koh)