All 46 basic katakana with romaji — plus the voiced kana and combinations. Tap any character
to copy it, hide the romaji to quiz yourself, then print the chart or download it as a PNG. Free, no sign-up.
How to read the chart
Katakana is one of the two Japanese kana syllabaries. It shares the same 46 sounds as hiragana but uses
cleaner, more angular shapes, and it is used mainly for words borrowed from other languages, foreign names,
and emphasis. Each character stands for a whole sound (a syllable), not a single letter. Read each row
of the basic chart across in vowel order — a, i, u, e, o — so the first row is
ア (a), イ (i), ウ (u), エ (e), オ (o), the next is カ (ka), キ (ki), ク (ku), ケ (ke), コ (ko), and so on.
Copy Tap any kana to copy it as plain Unicode — paste it into a message, a name, or a bio.
Quiz Switch off Show romaji to hide the readings and test yourself on the kana alone.
Print Print the chart (or save it as a PDF) for the wall, a binder, or the classroom.
Save Download a PNG to drop into notes, slides, or a study deck.
The three sections
The basic section is the 46-kana gojūon. The voiced section adds the
dakuten (゛) and handakuten (゜) marks — the same shapes voiced into g, z, d, b, and p sounds (カ → ガ, ハ → バ → パ).
The combinations section pairs a consonant kana with a small ャ, ュ, or ョ to make sounds like
キャ (kya) and ショ (sho). Turn the last two sections off with the switches above when you only want the core chart.
Learning hiragana too?
Most learners start with hiragana. Grab the matching hiragana chart — same layout, tap to copy, print, or save.
There are 46 basic katakana (the gojūon). On top of those there are 25 voiced and semi-voiced kana made with the
dakuten (゛) and handakuten (゜) marks, and 33 combination kana (yōon) formed with a small ャ, ュ, or ョ. This chart
shows all of them, grouped into those three sections.
Katakana is used mainly for loanwords borrowed from other languages (コーヒー, kōhī, "coffee"), foreign names,
onomatopoeia, and for emphasis — a bit like italics in English. It shares the same 46 sounds as hiragana but uses
more angular shapes.
Turn off the Show romaji switch and the readings disappear, leaving just the kana — read each one
aloud and check yourself by switching romaji back on. You can also print a blank version (romaji hidden) and write
the readings in by hand.
Yes. Tap or click any kana in the chart and it is copied to your clipboard as a normal Unicode character, ready to
paste into a message, document, name, or bio.
Both are Japanese syllabaries with the same 46 sounds. Katakana (angular shapes like ア, キ, ノ) is used mainly for
loanwords and names, while hiragana (curved shapes like あ, き, の) is used for native Japanese words and grammar.
Most learners study hiragana first, then katakana.
