Katakana: The long syllables and the small ッ

We can elongate any vowel in a syllable by using the ー elongating mark.

For example:

マーク:Maaku (Mark)

コーナー:koonaa (corner)

シャワー:shawaa (shower)

テーブル:teeburu (table)

コンピューター:konpyuutaa (computer)


Just like with hiragana, we can elongate a consonant by using the small tsu(ツ), this time written with katakana, before the consonant.

For example:

カップ:kappu (cup)

クノック:kunokku (knock)

チェック : chekku (check)


In the last example チェック、you may have noticed that strange small ェ katakana after チ. Well, with certain syllables, the vowel sound can be changed by adding either a small ァ、ェ.

Take a look at these examples!

ソファー:sofaa (sofa)

チェコ:cheko (Czech)

ウィクトーリア:Vikutooria (Victoria)

ソフィア:Sofia (Sofia)

フィルム:firumu (film)

ビクター:bikutaa (Victor)

I included some names, so you can see how it works when Japanese people try to pronounce your name.


So, to sum it all up:

As for フ、we can add the small ァ or ィ to make it ファ(fa) or フィ(fi) respectively.

Then the other common katakana syllables are the following:

ティ(ti)

ウイ(ui, the French oui)

ヴァ(vi, pronounced like why)

Here are some more examples:

ウイルス

ヴァイオリン

アクティビティ





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