Katakana Chart

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.