This lesson will cover the na & ha lines, but if you need a review of a-ka, or sa-ta, they’re always available.

Something I’ve noticed as my class has been getting into katakana more is that when using foreign words, vowels tend to be stretched.

The word Hamburger in Katakana is
ハ ン バー ガー
ha n baa gaa
My initial thought was to put ア (a) in there (like ハンバアガア), but that is incorrect even though it’d be pronounced very similarly if not the same way.
Coffee is the same way:
コーヒー
ko- hi-
I keep feeling like I should put the extra letter in there, but it’s not necessary. The ー covers it nicely. It doesn’t appear to be as common in Hiragana, at least from what I’ve seen. It does happen though.

On with the show!

ナ ニ ヌ ネ ノ
na ni nu ne no

ハ ヒ フ ヘ ホ
ha hi fu* he ho

These are all said the same as in Hiragana.

**Don’t forget that fu is still irregular.

When I was cramming for my quiz, I had a good thought on how to remember

ホ.  When ho is drawn, you draw the part that looks like a cross 1st. I thought to myself that a cross gives HOpe to alot of people.

But that’s it for now! Practice hard! http://www.realkana.com/katakana/

がんばって ください - Please try your best!