Katakana:

Foreign words are spelled with Katakana. Katakana is deceptively difficult because it is open to interperetation. You have to THINK like a Japanese person. How would a Japanese person pronounce the foreign word I am trying to spell. A strong understanding of this will help you figure out which kana is appropriate to use. I'll post some example words to help you gain this understanding.

How to Use this Table:
The Japanese alphabet is not made up like the English alphabet. It uses characters to represent sounds rather than individual letters. However, they do use vowels like we do.
English = A E I O U (we say: Ay, ee, eye, owe, you)
Japanese = A I U E O (They say Ah, ee, ooh, eh, owe)

More on pronounciation HERE.

The table below follows the Japanese vowel order. (ex. a,i,u,e,o ...ha, hi, hu,he, ho..ect)
To find a specific sound..say like "ko"..go down to the "K" row and follow it over to the "O" column.
I've put "alt Tags" on all the letters so all you have to do is hold your mouse over the character for a sec and the phoenetic sound should pop up.

NOTE: SHI and TSU can be very hard to tell from one another. I do it like this. SHI is a smiley facing right and TSU is a smiley facing left.
N and SO can also be hard to tell apart. "N" has the tiny sroke at the top of the curve and SO has it at the bottom.
A
I
U
E
O
a
e
u
e
o
H
ha
hi
hu
he
ho
K
ka
ki
ku
ke
ko
L/R
ra
ri
ru
re
ro
M
ma
mi
mu
me
mo
N
na
ni
nu
ne
no
n
(a)n

This "N" is only used for words ending in "N" or N's followed immediatly by a constanent (ex..BENRI ...Japanese word meaning "Convenient")
S
sa
shi
su
se
so
T
ta
chi
tsu
te
to
W
wa
No applicable sound
use "U"
Use"UE"
w(o)
Y
ya
No applicable sound
yu
No applicable sound
yo

Soft constanent Variants: These are made from the characters above to produce sounds like "Ba" and "Pa" and "Za". Basically you just add a " or a 'o' to the upper right of a character to make this sound...you'll see below...it's pretty easy.
B
ba
bi
bu
be
bo
P
pa
pi
pu
pe
po
G
ga
gi
gu
ge
go
D
da
Use JI
tzu/du
de
do
SH
sha
shi
shu
she
sho
J
ja
ji
ju
je
jo
Z
za
ji
zu
ze
zo
Ch
cha
chi
chu
che
cho
This character has no sound of it's own...it is used to elongate a vowel sound. Example "Chain" would be Cha + I + elongator + N. ...To make a vowel extra short use a tiny "tsu" after it. For example..My name is "Pat" and the a is very short so my name in Katakana is PA + tiny 'tsu' + TO.
 
Click here for some practice words