Learn Japanese FAQ

Q: Why is chan, hachi and usagi written in katakana in the food game? -  Erin

A: Hi Erin,  good question.  Chan is actually written in hiragana (ちゃん） but as you say hachi (bee) and usagi (rabbit) are in katakana.  The reason is that often kids haven’t learnt the kanji (Chinese symbols) for many animals, so in picture books they are often written in katakana.  It also makes them sound cuter when they are in katakana.  Even in science though you often see animal names in katakana rather than kanji (i.e. wikipedia tends to not use the kanji!)

If you want the kanji, usagi can be written as 兎 and hachi can be written as 蜂

Be genki,

Richard

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