How to Convert English Letters to Japanese

English writing can be converted to Japanese with katakana characters.

Converting English letters to Japanese writing may seem like a difficult task because the Japanese use a complex writing system. However, the language is fairly flexible and incorporates many foreign words. To make this easier, the Japanese have a special set of characters, called "katakana," that are designed for writing words from other languages. Katakana characters are used to write any foreign words or foreign names, and the primary reason someone would want to convert English letters to Japanese would be to spell a name.

Things You'll Need

• Katakana chart

Instructions

1. Examine the katakana chart so you are familiar with the characters and their sounds. Katakana is much like using the English alphabet; however, Japanese has fewer sounds than English, and you need to combine characters to create the sounds you need. All Japanese sounds, with the exception of "N," consist of either a vowel, or a consonant with a vowel combined. For instance, there is no "H" sound, there are the sounds "HA," "HI," "HE," "HU" and "HO."

2. Divide your word into syllables. When translated into Japanese, it may have more or fewer syllables, but this initial division will make it easier to decide which characters are appropriate to use. For instance, the name "Smith" is one syllable in English, but in Japanese, it is three: Su-mi-su.

3. Say each syllable slowly and out loud. Japanese uses more vowel sounds than English and words do not end with any consonants other than "N," so listen carefully to what consonant and vowel combinations can imitate the sounds in English. In addition, there are no "L" sounds, use "R" for any word with "L" in it. For instance, the name "Lisa" would be written and pronounced "Risa."

4. Write down the English letters for each Japanese sound in the word, then look at the chart to find the corresponding katakana character. Write or type each character for each sound combination.

Tips & Warnings

• Unlike English letters, which can have many pronunciations in different words, Japanese characters are always pronounced basically the same way. Listen to how each character is pronounced; this will help you with your conversion.

• The character "tsu" can be used to indicate a long sound. When used this way, it is written much smaller than a normal character.

• If you are pressed for time, there are many online converters that convert English letters to Japanese.

References

• Learn Japanese Free: Katakana Chart
• Omniglot: Japanese Katakana
• MauveCloud's Browser Tests: Kana Generator
• Sci.Lang.Japan: English to Katakana Converter (Experimental)
• Japanese Demystified: Eriko Sato; 2008