Lessons About The Japanese Writing System

The first thing you should get acquainted with if you are beginning to learn Japanese is the way Japanese is written. Here are some posts to help you understand with the Japanese writing system:

Writing System Basics

• The Japanese Alphabet
• Kana - Hiragana - Katakana - Kanji
• Japanese Writing Directions - Horizontal & Vertical
• Romaji - Reading Japanese With Our Alphabet
• When "ha" は is Pronounced "wa"
• Why ha は Particle is Pronounced wa わ, he へ as e え, wo を as o お?
• Furigana - Reading Aids for Kanji
• Morphemes in Japanese

Special Characters & Symbols

• ゃゅょ Small Kana - Compound Kana
• っ Small Tsu つ
• ヶ Small Ke ケ
• ゛゜ Tenten, Dakuten, Handakuten accents
  
• ー Prolonged Sound Mark
• ・ Middle Dot

• Spaces in Japanese
• 「」『』 Japanese Quotation Marks
• ●﹅ Dots in Furigana - Bouten 傍点
• 正 Japanese Tally Mark
• 小中高 - Small, Medium, High - Abbreviated School Years.

Rare Kana

• ヴ Weird "u" ウ Kana With Diacritic
• ゐ, ゑ, ヰ, ヱ wi, we - Rare Hiragana & Katakana

Kanji

• On'yomi and Kun'yomi - Kanji Readings
• 々 - Repetition Kanji
• Okurigana - Kana After Kanji
• Kanji Radicals and Components
• Jouyou Kanji - 2000 Kanji Learned in School

• Kanji Meanings
• Kanji for Words
• Guessing The Meanings of Words from Kanji
• Yojijukugo - Four Character Idiom

• Kanji Readings
• Kanji Read Different Ways
• Ateji - Readings that Don't Make Sense
• Jukujikun - Readings for Specific Words
• Gikun - Made-up Readings

Homonyms & Variations

• Homonyms - Different Words Read or Written The Same
• Same Word, Different Kanji
• Same Kanji, Different Word
• Kanji Backwards Spell Different Word - Semordnilap

Script Choice

• Words written with hiragana.
• Words written with katakana.
• Words written with kanji.
• Words written without kanji.
• Words that don't have kanji.
• Katakana Looks Cool, Kanji: Serious, Hiragana: Chummy
• 4649 - Spelling Words With Numbers in Japanese.

Loaned Words

• Gairaigo - Loaned English
• Wasei-eigo - Made-up English
• Katakanization - Katakana-go
• Separating katakana words

• English Letters in Katakana
• English Numbers in Katakana
• Japanese Words Containing Letters