The card for “必要” has the example sentence:
明日はハサミが必要だ。
I thought that katakana was used to write foreign words, so I was curious where ハサミ comes from or why it is written in katakana. The only thing I could find was the original kanji used to write ハサミ, and it looks like it can also be written in hiragana. I was just wondering why in this case katakana is used.
There’s really no hard rules in japanese, unfortunately. Some words are just katakana. others have several forms, and others the just use romaji (particularly acronyms in hat case)
Often in TV or anime or games you will see words written in all 3 way.
One person may say 僕, another may say ぼく and a third might say ボク. there are some other words you almost always see in katakana despite there being hiragana too. I’ve seen そば written as ソバ on menus too. it’s all about the style or presentation. (what’s really fun is when a place uses the kanji for coffee 珈琲, have fun with that.)
Hey @CollinB !
カタカナ is usually used for loan words and onomatopoeia, but you will probably see Japanese words (非外来語) written in katakana from time to time.
There are several reasons why katakana is used instead of kanji.
For this sentence, katakana is used because it is easier to read and understand, and writing ハサミ would make the readers think of everyday scissors (that normal everyday people use), instead of something that would be used in a professional setting (like medical scissors, or something industrial).
Others have explained it well. The version with katakana is so much clearer to me. I often write words in katakana if the sentence happens to have lots of hiragana together in a row.
明日はハサミが必要だ。
明日ははさみが必要だ。It just reads a little more unclear in this version to me.
In contexts such as manuals, technical documents, or product labels, katakana is often used to write common objects and tools. This is to ensure clarity and uniformity, making it easier for readers to quickly identify and understand the term.
I also wonder about ダメ