How do I write an English word in Japanese?

文字控

Japanese usually writes words from English and other languages in katakana. Katakana is phonetic, so a katakana transcription of an English word is based on how the word sounds, not how it is spelt. This page discusses ways to search for katakana versions of English words, and the rules for katakana transcription.

The first place to look for a Japanese version of an English word is a dictionary, to find the usual katakana equivalent. If the word is not in the dictionary, try to find a Japanese person to help you. Other tricks are explained in How can I find the Japanese name of a film, person, plant, etc.?

Transcribing an English word into Japanese depends on how the word is heard by native speakers. The rules are complex. Some Japanese versions of English words, such asguzzu for "goods", are not intuitive to English speakers. Some Japanese representations are based on spelling as well as pronunciation. For example the Japanese monkii (モンキー) for English "monkey" would be mankii(マンキー) if the Japanese was based on the pronunciation, mʌŋki in International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA symbols), alone.

Rules for conversion

Plurals usually become singular, thus "pyjamas" becomes pajama, and "slippers" becomes suripaa. Thus in Japan shops sell "Book" and "CD" rather than "Books" and "CDs". Sometimes singular also becomes plural, as in furūtsu for "fruit".

Words with existing gairaigo forms usually keep that form. For example, "black coffee" becomes burakku kōhii, even though kōhii for coffee originally comes from Dutch (see Which Japanese words come from Dutch?). Sometimes this doesn't happen. "Beer garden" becomes bia gāden (ビアガーデン), although the Japanese word for beer is biiru (ビール), from Dutch (see Which Japanese words come from Dutch?).

Japanese has fewer vowels than English, only five, and thus multiple English vowels may turn into the same Japanese vowels. For example, both the English vowel æ in "thank" and the vowel ʌ in "cut" become the Japanese a vowel. Similarly, long vowels such as ɑː in "far" and ɜː in "fur" both become Japanese ā.

Japanese has tended to favour British pronunciations, with words like "vitamin", becoming a British-soundingbitamin (ビタミン) rather than American-sounding baitamin (バイタミン). The vowels used in Japanese are usually taken from the British (southern English) pronunciation rather than the American. The rhotic "r" of some forms of English is almost never represented in Japanese, although there are some exceptions, such askariforunia (カリフォルニア) for the American state of California.

The following table outlines the rules for transcribing English sounds. The English sounds are represented in International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) form.

English sound (IPA)	Japanese	Examples	Japanese transcription Capitals indicate small kana
Short vowels
ɪ	イ, i	pit	ピット (pitto)
ɛ	エ, e	pet	ペット (petto)
æ	ア, a	ham	ハム (hamu)
æ after k	キャ, kya	cap	キャップ (kyappu)
ʌ	ア, a	mug	マグ (magu)
ʌ spelt with an "o"	オ, o (sometimes)	monkey, front, London	モンキー, フロント, ロンドン (monkii, furonto, rondon)
ɒ	オ, o	socks	ソックス (sokkusu)
ʊ	ウ, u	book	ブック (bukku)
Schwa (weak vowel)
non-final ə	not fixed, based on spelling.	about, pilot, London	アバウト, パイロット, ロンドン (abauto, pairotto, rondon)
final position ə	aa	carrier, hamburger	キャリアー, ハンバーガー (kyariā, hambāgā)
Long vowels
ɑː	アー, ア aa, a	car	カー (kā)
iː	イー: ii	shield	シールド (shiirudo)
ɔː	オー: oo	horse	ホース (hōsu)
	oa	オア: door	ドア (doa)
ɜː	アー: aa	bird	バード (bādo)
uː	ウー ū	shoe	シュー (shū)
juː	ュウ yū, see What is yōon?	cube	キューブ (kyūbu)
Diphthongs
eɪ	エイ, ei	day	デイ (dei)
aɪ	アイ, ai	my	マイ (mai)
ɔɪ	オーイ, ōi	boy	ボーイ (bōi)
	オイ, oi	toy	トイ (toi)
əʊ	オ, o	phone	フォン (fon)
	オー, ō	no	ノー (nō)
aʊ	アウ, au	now	ナウ (nau)
ɪə	イア, ia	pierce	ピアス (piasu)
ɛə	エア, ea	hair	ヘア (hea)
ʊə	ウアー, uaa	tour	ツアー (tsuā)
Consonants
θ	シャ, シ, シュ, シェ, ショ s	think	シンク (shinku)
ð	z	the	ザ (za)
r	ラ, リ, ル, レ, ロ: r-kana	right	ライト (raito)
l	ラ, リ, ル, レ, ロ: r-kana	link	リンク (rinku)
ŋ spelt "ng"	ンガ, ンギ ng	singer	シンガー (shingā)
	ン, n (occasionally)	Washington, surfing	ワシントン, サーフィン (washinton, sāfin)
ŋ spelt "nk" or "nc"	n	sink	シンク (shinku)
v	b	love	ラブ (rabu)
	ヴァ, ヴィ, ヴ, ヴェ, ヴォ: v, written as ヴ (the u katakana) plus a small vowel	visual	ヴィジュアル (vijuaru)
Consonants taking small vowel kana
w	ウィ: u + small vowel kana	win	ウィン (win)
f	ファ, フィ, フ, フェ, フォ: hu + small vowel kana	fight	ファイト (faito)
Special consonant and vowel combinations
ti, di	ティ, ディ (te or de + small i) (newer method)	Disney	ディズニー (dizunii)
	chi, ji (older method)
tu	トゥ: to + small u (newer method)	Tourette's syndrome	トゥレットシンドローム (turettoshindorōmu)
	ツ: tsu	two	ツー (tsū)
Consonant clusters
dz	ッズ zzu	goods, kids	グッズ, キッズ (guzzu, kizzu)

Conversions based on spelling, and other oddities

Although most of the conversion from an English word into Japanese is based on the pronunciation, in several cases the pronunciation is based on spelling. In particular the schwa sound, the "uh" at the end of "doctor", has no near equivalent in Japanese and so is usually transcribed depending on the spelling of the vowel. Other cases where spelling takes precedence include the ʌ vowel, the "u" in "cup" and "hut", which is usually a, but when spelt with an o becomes o. For example "monkey" is monkii rather thanmankii. Japanese also lengthens n sounds, such as Anna (アンナ) for the English name Anna, when they are spelt with two ns.

In some cases, a mis-reading of a word survives into Japanese. For example, the woodworking tool "router", which should have becomerautā, is known as a rūtā, based on the spelling.

Japanese tends to shorten three-mora constructions ending in syllabic n (ん) into two moras. For example "stainless steel" becomes sutenresu (ステンレス) rather than suteinresu(ステインレス).

Transcription of names

In the case of people's names, Japanese tends to transcribe into near-equivalent versions not based on the pronunciation. For example, the English name Sarah is often transcribed into Sara (サラ) rather than Sērā(セーラー). For example American politician Sarah Palin is known as Sara Peirin (サラ・ペイリン) in Japan. Naomi is transcribed into Naomi (ナオミ), a common Japanese female name with a similar romanized spelling but different pronunciation, rather than Nēomi, a much closer representation of the pronunciation. For example British model Naomi Campbell is known as Naomi Kyamberu (ナオミ・キャンベル) in Japan. Similarly, Thomas is transcribed as Tōmasu using a long first vowel, and even more extremely, Paul may be transcribed into Paoro.