katakana logo Horizontal vs. Vertical Writing
 

 

As in hiragana, katakana can be written in the vertical direction.

Vertical Writing Sample


Clark Kent is Superman.

When the text is written vertically, the vowel extender symbol is written as a vertical line (Vowel Extender Symbol (vertical version)) as shown on the left.

 

In vertical writing, the Japanese period and comma are written to the right of the center. The center dot between クラーク and ケント represents a space in the original text.

 

The hiragana is pronounced as /wa/ in this case. We will discuss why this is so later.

book Can you find the word ビジネスマナー (business manner) written in katakana on the photo on the left?