The basic katakana chart was built to write Japanese syllables, so it has no way to spell sounds the language never used — the f of "fork," the ti of "party," the v of "violin." To borrow words that contain these sounds, twentieth-century Japanese invented a set of extended katakana combinations: a full-size base kana followed by a small vowel kana. Learn the handful of building blocks on this page and you can read almost any modern loanword — from a menu, a website, or a product label.
The mechanism: base kana + small vowel
Every extended combination works the same way. You take a base kana that already carries the consonant you want, then attach a small vowel kana (ァ ィ ゥ ェ ォ) to override its built-in vowel. The pair is read as a single mora.
The small vowel is genuinely half-size — this is not decorative. A full-size vowel would be read as its own separate beat.
ソファでちょっと休もう。
sofa de chotto yasumō
Let's rest on the sofa for a bit.
Here フ (fu) plus small ァ gives ファ (fa), one mora. Write フア with a full-size ア and you would have fu-a, two morae — a different word.
The f-row: ファ フィ フェ フォ
Native Japanese has only ハ ヒ フ ヘ ホ (ha hi fu he ho), and フ is closer to an h/f blend than a true English f. To spell fa, fi, fe, fo, take フ and add a small vowel.
| Kana | Reading | Example word |
|---|---|---|
| ファ | fa | ソファ (sofa), ファイル (file) |
| フィ | fi | フィルム (film), フィット (fit) |
| フェ | fe | カフェ (café), フェリー (ferry) |
| フォ | fo | フォーク (fork), スマートフォン (smartphone) |
駅の近くに雰囲気のいいカフェを見つけたよ。
eki no chikaku ni fun'iki no ii kafe o mitsuketa yo
I found a café with a nice atmosphere near the station.
すみません、フォークを落としてしまいました。
sumimasen, fōku o otoshite shimaimashita
Excuse me, I dropped my fork.
祖父は今でもフィルムのカメラを使っている。
sofu wa ima demo firumu no kamera o tsukatte iru
My grandfather still uses a film camera.
The t- and d-rows: ティ ディ トゥ ドゥ
Japanese タ行 (the t-row) is ta chi tsu te to — there is no plain ti or tu. To spell them, use テ/デ plus small ィ for ti/di, and ト/ド plus small ゥ for tu/du. The ti/di pair is extremely common; tu/du is rarer and shows up mainly in newer or more careful transcriptions.
| Kana | Reading | Example word |
|---|---|---|
| ティ | ti | パーティー (party), ティッシュ (tissue) |
| ディ | di | ディナー (dinner), ディズニー (Disney) |
| トゥ | tu | タトゥー (tattoo) |
| ドゥ | du | ヒンドゥー (Hindu) |
土曜日、友達の家でパーティーがあるんだ。
doyōbi, tomodachi no ie de pātī ga aru n da
There's a party at my friend's place on Saturday.
ティッシュ、一枚もらえる？鼻水が止まらなくて。
tisshu, ichimai moraeru? hanamizu ga tomaranakute
Can I have a tissue? My nose won't stop running.
腕にタトゥーを入れようか、まだ迷ってる。
ude ni tatū o ireyō ka, mada mayotteru
I'm still on the fence about getting a tattoo on my arm.
The w-row: ウィ ウェ ウォ
Modern Japanese only has ワ (wa) and ヲ from the old w-row. To write wi, we, wo, take ウ and add a small vowel.
| Kana | Reading | Example word |
|---|---|---|
| ウィ | wi | ウィスキー (whisky), ハロウィン (Halloween) |
| ウェ | we | ウェブ (web), ウェディング (wedding) |
| ウォ | wo | ウォーキング (walking), ウォッカ (vodka) |
詳しいことはウェブサイトに載っています。
kuwashii koto wa webu saito ni notte imasu
The details are on the website.
父は寝る前にウィスキーを一杯だけ飲む。
chichi wa neru mae ni wisukī o ippai dake nomu
My father drinks just one glass of whisky before bed.
The sh-, j-, ch-rows: シェ ジェ チェ
Japanese has sha shu sho but no she; ja ju jo but no je; cha chu cho but no che. Add a small ェ to シ, ジ, チ to fill the gaps.
| Kana | Reading | Example word |
|---|---|---|
| シェ | she | シェア (share), シェフ (chef) |
| ジェ | je | ジェット (jet), ジェスチャー (gesture) |
| チェ | che | チェック (check), チェス (chess) |
出かける前に、火とガスをチェックしてね。
dekakeru mae ni, hi to gasu o chekku shite ne
Before you head out, check the stove and the gas.
この記事、面白かったからみんなにシェアしたい。
kono kiji, omoshirokatta kara minna ni shea shitai
This article was interesting, so I want to share it with everyone.
ヴ: the "v" that usually is not one
To spell v, Meiji-era scholars repurposed ウ with a dakuten (voicing mark) to make ヴ (vu), then added small vowels: ヴァ (va), ヴィ (vi), ヴ (vu), ヴェ (ve), ヴォ (vo).
妹は五歳からヴァイオリンを習っている。
imōto wa gosai kara vaiorin o naratte iru
My little sister has been learning the violin since she was five.
Here is the catch that trips up every English speaker: Japanese still has no [v] sound. ヴ is a spelling, not a new phoneme. Most speakers read ヴァイオリン exactly as if it were バイオリン (baiorin), with a plain b. The b-row spelling is in fact more common in everyday writing, and it is the one you will see far more often.
バイオリンの音が二階から聞こえてくる。
baiorin no oto ga nikai kara kikoete kuru
The sound of a violin drifts down from upstairs.
The trend is even moving away from ヴ. In 2019 Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs officially respelled country names to drop it — カーボヴェルデ became カーボベルデ (Cabo Verde) — precisely because the b spelling reflects real pronunciation.
Why these spellings feel inconsistent
Extended katakana is a twentieth-century retrofit. Words borrowed earlier were locked in before the new combinations existed, so they keep older approximations — and nobody has gone back to "fix" them. This is the single biggest source of apparent inconsistency.
- テレビ (terebi, "television") — not spelled with any special sound; frozen from an era before the workarounds.
- ビール (bīru, "beer," from Dutch bier) — plain b, no ヴ.
- コップ (koppu, "cup/tumbler," from Dutch kop) — an old loan with its own frozen shape.
So the same foreign sound can appear one way in an old loan and another way in a new one. There is no rule that fixes this — you learn each common word's conventional spelling, and lean on the pattern only for words you have never seen.
A few more you will meet
Beyond the core rows, you will occasionally see ツァ/ツェ/ツォ (tsa/tse/tso, as in モーツァルト Mōtsaruto "Mozart"), イェ (ye), and クォ (kwo, as in クォーツ kwōtsu "quartz"). They follow the same base-plus-small-vowel logic, so once the mechanism clicks, they need no separate memorizing.
Common mistakes
❌ フア（フ＋大きいア）
fu-a (full-size a)
Incorrect — a full-size vowel is read as a separate beat: fu-a, not fa.
✅ ファ（フ＋小さいァ）
fa (small a)
Correct — the small vowel merges into one mora: fa.
The size of the second kana is not cosmetic. ファ is one mora (fa); フア is two (fu-a).
❌ ヴァイオリン を英語の [v] で読もうとする
reading ヴ as an English v
Incorrect — Japanese has no [v]; ヴ is normally pronounced like b.
✅ ヴァイオリン ＝ バイオリン（b の音）
vaiorin = baiorin (b sound)
Correct — ヴ is a spelling, not a distinct sound; read it as b.
❌ 「thank」の th を書こうと探す
looking for a 'th' kana
Incorrect — Japanese has no 'th'; there is no extended kana for it.
✅ サンキュー / スリー（th → s の音で近似）
sankyū / surī
Correct — 'th' is approximated with the s-row: 'thank you' → サンキュー, 'three' → スリー.
Unlike f, v, or ti, the English th never got an extended spelling. It is simply approximated with サ/ス, so do not go hunting for a kana that does not exist.
❌ パーチー
pāchī
Incorrect — チ is 'chi'; this reads 'pa-chii', not 'party'.
✅ パーティー
pātī
Correct — テ + small ィ spells the 'ti' in 'party'.
❌ 新しい外来語だから、必ずヴを使う
assuming ヴ is always required
Incorrect — many common words conventionally use the b-row (バイオリン), not ヴ.
✅ バイオリン（一般的）／ヴァイオリン（やや硬め）
baiorin (common) / vaiorin (more formal)
Correct — the b-row spelling is standard; ヴ is the formal or stylistic option.
Key takeaways
- Extended katakana = a full-size base kana + a small vowel kana, read as one mora.
- The small size is load-bearing: ファ (one mora) vs フア (two morae).
- ヴ spells v but is usually pronounced b, and the b-row spelling (バイオリン) is more common than the ヴ one.
- The system is a modern add-on, so older loans keep older approximations (テレビ, ビール) — memorize the common ones and generalize only for new words.
- Japanese never invented a spelling for th — it stays as サ/ス.
For where and why loanwords get katakana in the first place, see when katakana is used; for how the sounds themselves get reshaped on the way in, see loanword phonology.
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Start learning Japanese→Related Topics
- When Katakana Is UsedN4 — The full set of jobs katakana does — loanwords, mimetics, scientific names, branding, and native-word emphasis — and why it is not just an 'English marker'.
- How Loanwords Are AdaptedN3 — The rule-governed way English and other foreign words are reshaped to fit Japanese sound structure — why 'milk' becomes ミルク and 'strike' becomes both ストライク and ストライキ.
- Reading the Katakana GridN5 — The full katakana gojūon paired with its hiragana equivalents, plus the stroke-direction trick that finally separates シ/ツ and ソ/ン.