The Most Basic Basics about Kanji and Hiragana
Thereupon, Marduk, the highest god, challenged the sea goddess Tiamat and the 11 dragons she had given birth to to fight against him. (my translation)
--->> Most of the time, Japanese isn't written with the letters of our Latin alphabet (the Latin alphabet, called Rōmaji, "Roman letters", is actually only used when people try to make it easier for non-Japanese speakers, like me;)...) but with
それで, 英雄神 マルドウク は 海の女神 チアマトと 彼女が 生んだ １１種の竜を 相手に たった 一人で 戦いを 挑みました。
Kanji are visual symbols representing words:
英雄 represents the word hero. The kanji is pronounced eiyuu.
神 represents the word god. The kanji is pronounced kami.
海 represents the word sea. The kanji is pronounced umi.
Hiragana characters do not represent whole words but sounds, vowels and consonants. Several characters are combined to form words or parts of words (they are actually much like the letters of the Latin alphabet, which also represent sounds and are combined to form words):
あ represents the vowel a (which is pronounced like the "a" in "car")
ん represents the consonant n (pronounced like "n" in "noddles")
Most of the time, Hiragana characters actually represent two sounds, that means a syllable (= a combination of a consonant and a vowel, e.g. na, ne, ni, no, nu etc.):
の represents the syllable no (which is (almost) pronounced like the English word "no.")
In the word それで several Hiragana characters have been combined to form a word (sorede, which means "and" or "because of that"): そ (so) + れ (re) + で (de) = それで (sorede)
--->> Most of the time, Japanese isn't written with the letters of our Latin alphabet (the Latin alphabet, called Rōmaji, "Roman letters", is actually only used when people try to make it easier for non-Japanese speakers, like me;)...) but with
- Kanji (Chinese characters)
- Hiragana and Katagana (two phonetic writing systems).
それで, 英雄神 マルドウク は 海の女神 チアマトと 彼女が 生んだ １１種の竜を 相手に たった 一人で 戦いを 挑みました。
Kanji are visual symbols representing words:
英雄 represents the word hero. The kanji is pronounced eiyuu.
神 represents the word god. The kanji is pronounced kami.
海 represents the word sea. The kanji is pronounced umi.
Hiragana characters do not represent whole words but sounds, vowels and consonants. Several characters are combined to form words or parts of words (they are actually much like the letters of the Latin alphabet, which also represent sounds and are combined to form words):
あ represents the vowel a (which is pronounced like the "a" in "car")
ん represents the consonant n (pronounced like "n" in "noddles")
Most of the time, Hiragana characters actually represent two sounds, that means a syllable (= a combination of a consonant and a vowel, e.g. na, ne, ni, no, nu etc.):
の represents the syllable no (which is (almost) pronounced like the English word "no.")
In the word それで several Hiragana characters have been combined to form a word (sorede, which means "and" or "because of that"): そ (so) + れ (re) + で (de) = それで (sorede)