Basic Katakana Chart

46 Basic Characters (Gojūon)

	A	I	U	E	O
	ア a	イ i	ウ u	エ e	オ o
K	カ ka	キ ki	ク ku	ケ ke	コ ko
S	サ sa	シ shi	ス su	セ se	ソ so
T	タ ta	チ chi	ツ tsu	テ te	ト to
N	ナ na	ニ ni	ヌ nu	ネ ne	ノ no
H	ハ ha	ヒ hi	フ fu	ヘ he	ホ ho
M	マ ma	ミ mi	ム mu	メ me	モ mo
Y	ヤ ya		ユ yu		ヨ yo
R	ラ ra	リ ri	ル ru	レ re	ロ ro
W	ワ wa				ヲ wo
N	ン n

About this chart

Katakana is Japanese's second phonetic script, used mainly for loanwords borrowed from other languages, foreign names, onomatopoeia, and emphasis (the way English might use italics). It represents the exact same 46 sounds as hiragana, organized by the same gojūon ("fifty sounds") table — the difference is entirely in the shapes, which tend to be more angular and geometric.

This chart lists all 46 base katakana characters by consonant row (K, S, T, N, H, M, Y, R, W) and vowel column (A, I, U, E, O), with romaji underneath each one.

Study alongside this chart

If hiragana already feels solid, katakana usually goes faster since you're learning new shapes for sounds you already know. See Understanding Katakana for more on where and why it's used, then drill it in Study mode.

Next, move on to the dakuten & handakuten chart and the contracted sounds chart, or test recall with a blank practice sheet.

Not sure how to write a character? The katakana stroke order chart shows the numbered strokes for every character on this sheet, with an animation and a tracing pad for each one.