Japanese syllabaries (alias for Hiragana + Katakana)

Japanese has three writing systems: hiragana, katakana and kanji. Hiragana and katakana are syllabaries: each character represents a syllable. Kanji are logographic characters: each character represents a word or concept. The Japanese writing system is often said to be one of the most difficult to learn, due to the large number of characters. However, hiragana and katakana are not as difficult as they first appear. There are only 46 basic hiragana characters and 48 basic katakana characters. These can be learned relatively easily. Once you know the basic characters, you can combine them to form hundreds of different sound combinations. Katakana is used for words of foreign origin, while hiragana is used for native Japanese words. Kanji are used for both. In addition, romaji (Latin letters) are often used for words that can be written in either hiragana or katakana. Learning hiragana and katakana will give you a basic understanding of the Japanese writing system. However, to be able to read and write fluently, you will need to learn kanji as well.