Learn how to read and write katakana characters, ハ, ヒ, フ, ヘ, ホ
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| みなさんこんにちは。(Mina-san, konnichiwa) Hi everyone, I am Chihiro and welcome back to JapanesePod101.com’s Kantan kana series. In the last lesson, we learned the katakana characters ナ(na), ニ(ni), ヌ(nu), ネ(ne) and ノ(no). If you remember your hiragana that will really help with this lesson. If you see some characters you don’t know, be sure to review some past lessons. Now, let’s take a look at the next five katakana characters. |
| We will begin with ハ(ha). 1, 2. Just two short lines, one going left and the other going right. Think of it as a line broken in half. Here is ハニー(hanī) “honey” and here is ハイチ(Haichi) “Haiti”, a country in the West Indies. |
| Next up is ヒ(hi) 1, 2. Perhaps it looks like the heal of the foot. Here is コーヒー(kōhī), “coffee” and here is another onomatopoeia for ヒソヒソ(hisohiso), a word used to describe something when it’s done secretly. |
| Next up is フ(fu), just a single stroke with the turn. Now you can write ハーフ(hāfū), “half” and here is アフター(afutā), “after”. Here is the easiest one we will learn today. |
| Remember the hiragana ヘ(he) while in katakana, it’s the same thing. Let’s write ヘクター(Hekutā). For those who have the name Hector. And here is ヘナ(hena) as in the Henna plant. |
| Our last character is ホ(ho). Probably the most difficult one in this lesson, 1, 2, 3, 4. Now you can write ホース(hōsu) a hose used for gardening and here is another onomatopoeia chord [ph] for you. ホーホー(hōhō). Can you guess what that is? It’s a sound an owl makes. |
| Now let’s have a short quiz. I will show you a word in katakana and you read it. Bonus points if you remember what it means. |
| ハニー(hanī) “honey” |
| コーヒー(kōhī), “coffee” |
| ホース(hōsu) “ hose” |
| Now it’s time for Chihiro’s tip. There are many words in which the foreign word is used over the Japanese counterpart. For example, words like ハニー(hanī) and アフター(afutā) also have Japanese equivalents. Sometimes Japanese uses the non-Japanese word because the image associated with it is different. You see a lot of it when talking about the latest trends, concepts and ideas whereas in katakana, you tend to have a modern feel to them. |
| Have you ever been to メキシコ(Mekishiko) or モナコ(Monako) even if you haven’t, at least you learned how to write Mexico and Monaco in katakana in the next lesson. I will see you then. |
42 Comments
HideMina-san, have you thought of a good way to remember the katakana ハ ヒ フ ヘ and ホ ? If you have a special method, please let us know below ;)
こんにちは Derrickさん
You're welcome. 😇
Let us know if you have any questions.
Wishing you good luck with your Japanese,
レヴェンテ (Levente)
Team JapanesePod101.com
Thank you
Adamさん
コメントありがとうございます😄
That is a really good method to remember them!
Please let us know if you have any question :)
Sincerely
Ryoma
Team JapanesePod101.com
For Ha and Ho in both Hiragana and Katakana I remember that they are both variants of the other, e.g. ハ > ホ (just add the cross) and は > ほ (just add one additional line) - also being on the two ends of the syllables helps this even more.
Hi Chingiz and ジェイコブ
Thank you for the comments! I know it's a confusing part....
Following lesson and videos explains difference of Wa and Ha.
https://www.japanesepod101.com/lesson/particles-1-coincidence-times-two-japanese-particles-wa-no-and-mo/
https://www.japanesepod101.com/lesson/absolute-beginner-questions-answered-by-hiroko-1-ha-or-wa/
https://www.japanesepod101.com/lesson/absolute-beginner-questions-answered-by-hiroko-2-should-i-use-watashi-wa/
Keep up the good study at Japanesepod101.
Cheers,
Sono
Team JapanesePod101.com
Chingiz: Maybe a bit late to the party, but I found that in some cases, the symbol for "ha" は is used instead of "wa" わ. I've seen it most in the phrase 私は_______です。(Watashi WA _______ desu.) You'll have to look up the specifics, though, because I'm far from an expert :)
Konnichiwa!
I have a question about speaker's first phrase みなさんこんにちは. Why the last symbol は sounds like wa? I didn't found this symbol in hiragana. But by the hiragana "wa" looks differently. And as i see this is "ha" symbol.
Almost there, KATAKANA! :smile:
Refiul san,
Konnichiwa.:smile:
Thank you for your post.
We are happy to hear from you.
Yuki 由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com
Awesome videos. Keep it that way, greetings from Paraguay :thumbsup: