N5

Katakana II: Loanwords and Long Vowels

Build katakana fluency with the long vowel mark ー and common everyday loanwords.

Notice how ー stretches the vowel sound before it.Read familiar katakana words with long vowels more smoothly.Keep longer loanwords in sound-sized chunks instead of letter by letter.

Guided study

The long vowel mark ー

The long vowel mark ー stretches the sound before it. A word with ー is not just longer on the page; the sound itself is held a little longer.

スーパー

supermarket

メール

mail / email

コーヒー

coffee