When you start learning Japanese, you quickly discover that the language is written with three different systems: hiragana, katakana and kanji. The good news: each one has a precise role, and it all begins with the kana.

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🟩 1. Hiragana: the foundation of the language

Hiragana (ひらがな) is a syllabary of 46 basic characters with rounded shapes. It is used for:

• native Japanese words (たべる, taberu, to eat);
• grammar: particles, verb and adjective endings;
• reading words whose kanji you don't know yet.

It is the first system to learn: it is used to read literally everything.

🟦 2. Katakana: words from elsewhere

Katakana (カタカナ) covers exactly the same sounds as hiragana, but with sharper, more angular shapes. It is mainly reserved for:

• foreign words (コーヒー, kōhī, coffee);
• non-Japanese names and given names;
• onomatopoeia and some technical terms.

🟧 3. Kanji: ideograms from China

Kanji (漢字) do not represent sounds but ideas: each character carries a meaning. 山 means "mountain", 水 "water". There are thousands of them, but about 2,000 are enough for daily life. You learn them gradually, after the kana.

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🔄 All three together in a sentence

A Japanese sentence often mixes the three systems:

私はコーヒーを飲みます。
わたしはコーヒーをのみます。
Watashi wa kōhī o nomimasu.
→ I drink coffee.

Here, 私 and 飲 are kanji, コーヒー is katakana, and は, を, みます are hiragana.

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🎯 Where to start?

The order is simple: hiragana, then katakana, then kanji. Mastering the two syllabaries (the kana) already lets you read and pronounce any word. That is exactly what Kanakana offers, with its reference charts and practice quizzes.