Keep in mind that Hiragana and Katakana are not alphabetical like in English. Each symbol represents a different syllable, with the exception of ん (n) and the five vowels, あ (a), い (i), う (u), え (e), and お (o). For example, the symbol か represents the syllable ka and さ represents sa.
Katakana is also used for onomatopoeia, or sound words. Japanese onomatopoeia often consists of one or two syllables and is usually repeated.
Another example: If a character asks for a りんご (Romaji: Ringo), and then they’re given an apple, you can guess that 「りんご」means apple.
Look up a word multiple times to confirm what the word means. Looking a word up more than once will also provide you with multiple different explanations and translations, which can help you understand the exact and precise meaning of the word.
Kanji usually have at least 2 readings: it’s On’yomi reading(s) (the original Chinese reading) and it’s Kun’yomi reading(s) (the native Japanese reading), with some exceptions. In order to read most Japanese texts, you’ll need to know about 1,000-20,000 Kanji.
は (used to identify the topic of a sentence. Note that although the symbol は is read as ha, when it’s a particle, it’s read as wa. ), の (used to indicate possession, read as no), を (used to identify that something is the direct object of a verb. Note that although this symbol is wo, it is pronounced as o. ) The particles listed above are just 3 of the most common ones. There are thousands of Japanese particles with many different uses and meanings.
While verb inflections may seem confusing at first, in Japanese (unlike in English), there are no irregular verbs. However, inflections can change depending on the type of verb.
