Katakana: ハ to ン and the marks

The rows that finish the grid

ハ ヒ フ ヘ ホ, マ ミ ム メ モ, ヤ ユ ヨ, ラ リ ル レ ロ, ワ ヲ ン. As in hiragana, three of these rows are short, and ヲ is a museum piece: the object particle is always written in hiragana, so you will meet ヲ on old signs and almost nowhere else. ン is the one you will read constantly, because the borrowed words katakana carries are full of consonants at the end of a syllable.

The marks work exactly as they do in hiragana

Two strokes voice a sign – カ to ガ, サ to ザ, タ to ダ, ハ to バ – and the small circle on the ハ row gives パ ピ プ ペ ポ. Small ャ ュ ョ fuse a syllable as before, and small ッ is the same beat of silence: サッカー, カップ, ベッド. Nothing new is being taught here; only the shapes have changed.

あついコーヒーとあさのパンhot coffee and bread in the morning

ホテルのちかくのレストランthe restaurant near the hotel