Loanwords, unlocked
アイス (ice cream), コーヒー (coffee), タクシー (taxi) — thousands of words you already know are written in katakana. Learn the script and they're all instantly readable.
SimplyKatakana. Read Japanese.
You already know hundreds of Japanese words. アイス is ice cream. コーヒー is coffee. カメラ is camera. They're everywhere — on menus, signs, packaging — written in katakana. The vocabulary isn't the problem. The script is. Learn 46 characters and thousands of words become instantly readable. SimplyKatakana is completely free.
iPhone · iPad · Android coming soon
Katakana unlocks every foreign word in Japanese. This is where that starts.
The katakana problem
Katakana is often taught as an afterthought. SimplyKatakana treats it as what it is: the key to thousands of words you already know.
Experience
Forty-six characters. Thousands of words.
Katakana is the key to every foreign word in Japanese. Learn the script once, read loanwords forever.
1. Open
No accounts. No login. Tap Start.
2. Learn
Each character comes with its reading, a real loanword example, and a visual mnemonic.
3. Recall
Try to remember before you tap. The struggle to recall is what makes katakana automatic.
Confusable pairs, solved
ソ/ン and シ/ツ trip up almost everyone. SimplyKatakana gives these pairs extra attention with targeted mnemonics and spaced repetition that drills them until they stop being confusable.
Free. Forever.
Start studying now.
The Science
Why retrieval beats review.
Most learners try to memorize katakana by staring at a chart. It rarely works because recognition and recall are different skills. Cognitive psychologists Craik and Lockhart established in 1972 that retrieving information from memory produces significantly deeper encoding than reviewing it passively. SimplyKatakana is built around retrieval: see the card, try to recall, then tap.
Spaced repetition handles the timing. Characters you struggle with — especially confusable pairs like ソ/ン — come back more often until they stop being difficult. The system adapts to your mistakes.
Built Right
How it's built.
- Your progress stays on your device. No server. No account. No trackers. Everything lives locally.
- Accessibility is not optional. VoiceOver, Dynamic Type, and reduced motion preferences all work as they should.
- Free means free. Start studying now.
Our Story
Why katakana gets its own app.
Katakana is usually treated as hiragana's twin — taught alongside it, rushed through, never given enough attention. But katakana does something hiragana doesn't: it unlocks every foreign word in Japanese. Brands, menus, street signs, song titles — all katakana. It deserved its own app, its own mnemonics, and its own focus on the confusable pairs that trip everyone up.
SimplyKatakana is free because the basics should be free. No strings, no upsells. Just the 46 characters, the hints, and the spaced repetition to make them stick.
The Simply Learning Ecosystem
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Available on iPhone and iPad
Start reading katakana today.
Free forever. Study on your iPhone on the train, your iPad at the table. Same progress, any device.
Android coming soon.
Download on the App Store